Swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's 100 metre butterfly
The women's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2012 Summer Olympics took place on 28–29 July at the London Aquatics Centre in London, United Kingdom. U. S. Swimmer Dana Vollmer demolished a new world record to clear a 56-second barrier and to claim the Olympic title in the event for the first time since Amy Van Dyken did so in 1996, she touched third at the initial length, but powered home with a back-half strategy on the final stretch to capture the gold in 55.98, the first sub-56 second time in the event's history, shaving 0.08 seconds off the previous record set by Sweden's Sarah Sjöström in a since-banned high-tech body suit from the 2009 World Championships. China's Lu Ying came from behind with the same tactic to grab a silver in 56.87, while Australia's Alicia Coutts nearly pulled from worst-to-podium effort after turning last at the 50-metre lap to put up a late resistant surge for the bronze in 56.94. Sjostrom, the former world record holder, finished off the podium with a fourth-place time in 57.17, was followed in fifth by Italy's Ilaria Bianchi at a lifetime best and national record of 57.27.
Denmark's Jeanette Ottesen Gray paid for an aggressive strategy with an early lead on the first half, before fading to sixth in 57.35. Vollmer's teammate Claire Donahue and Great Britain's Ellen Gandy rounded out the field. For the first time in Olympic history, all eight finalists finished the race under a 58-second barrier. Earlier in the prelims, Vollmer posted both a textile and an American best of 56.25 to lead all swimmers for the top seed, wiping out Inge de Bruijn's 2000 Olympic record by 36-hundredths of a second. Notable swimmers missed the final roster including Singapore's Tao Li, who delivered a surprise fifth-place finish in Beijing four years earlier. Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were; the following records were established during the competition: NBC Olympics Coverage
Freestyle swimming
Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation, in which competitors are subject to few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competitions, with distances beginning with 50 meters and reaching 1500 meters known as the mile; the term'freestyle stroke' is sometimes used as a synonym for'front crawl', as front crawl is the fastest swimming stroke. It is now the most common stroke used in freestyle competitions. Freestyle swimming implies the use of legs and arms for competitive swimming, except in the case of the individual medley or medley relay events; the front crawl is most chosen by swimmers, as this provides the greatest speed. During a race, the competitor circles the arms forward in alternation, kicking the feet down. Individual freestyle events can be swum using one of the regulated strokes. For the freestyle part of medley swimming competitions, one cannot use breaststroke, butterfly, or backstroke.
Front crawl is based on the Trudgen, improved by Richmond Cavill from Sydney, Australia. Cavill developed the stroke by observing a young boy from Alick Wickham. Cavill and his brothers spread the Australian crawl to England, New Zealand and America, creating the freestyle used worldwide today. During the Olympic Games, front crawl is swum exclusively during freestyle; some of the few rules state that swimmers must touch the end of the pool during each length and cannot push off the bottom, hang on the wall, or pull on the lane lines during the course of the race. As with all competitive events, false starts can lead to disqualification of the swimmer. Times have dropped over the years due to better training techniques and to new developments in the sport. In the first four Olympics, swimming competitions were not in open water; the 1904 Olympics freestyle race was the only one measured at 100 yards, instead of the usual 100 meters. A 100-meter pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and sat in the center of the main stadium's track and field oval.
The 1912 Olympics, held in the Stockholm harbor, marked the beginning of electronic timing. Male swimmers wore full body suits up until the 1940s, which caused more drag in the water than their modern swimwear counterparts. Over the years, some design considerations have reduced swimming resistance, making the pool faster, namely: proper pool depth, elimination of currents, increased lane width, energy-absorbing racing lane lines and gutters, the use of other innovative hydraulic and illumination designs; the 1924 Olympics was the first to use the standard 50 meter pool with marked lanes. In freestyle events, swimmers dove from the pool walls, but diving blocks were incorporated at the 1936 Olympics; the flip turn was developed in the 1950s. Lane design created in the early 1970s has cut down turbulence in water, aiding in the more dynamic pool used today. Freestyle means "any style" for individual swims and any style but breaststroke, butterfly, or backstroke for both the individual medley, medley relay competitions.
The wall has to be touched upon completion. Some part of the swimmer must be above water at any time, except for the first 15 meters after the start and every turn; this rule was introduced to prevent swimmers from using the faster underwater swimming to their advantage, or swimming entire laps underwater. The exact FINA rules are: Freestyle means that in an event so designated the swimmer may swim any style, except that in individual medley or medley relay events, freestyle means any style other than backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly Some part of the swimmer must touch the wall upon completion of each length and at the finish Some part of the swimmer must break the surface of the water throughout the race, except it shall be permissible for the swimmer to be submerged during the turn and for a distance of not more than 15 meters after the start and each turn. By that point the head must have broken the surface. There are nine competitions used in freestyle swimming, both using either a long course or a short course pool.
The United States employs short course yards. In the United States, it is common for swimmers to compete in a 25-yard pool during the Fall and Spring, switch over to a 50-meter pool format during the Summer. 50 m freestyle 100 m freestyle 200 m freestyle 400 m freestyle 800 m freestyle 1500 m freestyle 4×50 m freestyle relay 4 × 100 m freestyle relay 4 × 200 m freestyle relay Young swimmers have the option to swim a 25 yard/meter freestyle event. Freestyle is part of the medley over the following distances: 100 m individual medley 200 m individual medley 400 m individual medley 4 × 100 m medley relay In the long distance races of the 800 meter and 1500 meter, some meets hosted by FINA only
Swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water for recreation, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the body, or both. Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as a survival response. Swimming is among the top public recreational activities, in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum; as a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local and international competitions, including every modern Summer Olympics. Swimming relies on the nearly neutral buoyancy of the human body. On average, the body has a relative density of 0.98 compared to water, which causes the body to float. However, buoyancy varies on the basis of body composition, lung inflation, the salinity of the water. Higher levels of body fat and saltier water both lower the relative density of the body and increase its buoyancy. Since the human body is only less dense than water, water supports the weight of the body during swimming.
As a result, swimming is “low-impact” compared to land activities such as running. The density and viscosity of water create resistance for objects moving through the water. Swimming strokes use this resistance to create propulsion, but this same resistance generates drag on the body. Hydrodynamics is important to stroke technique for swimming faster, swimmers who want to swim faster or exhaust less try to reduce the drag of the body's motion through the water. To be more hydrodynamic, swimmers can either increase the power of their strokes or reduce water resistance, though power must increase by a factor of three to achieve the same effect as reducing resistance. Efficient swimming by reducing water resistance involves a horizontal water position, rolling the body to reduce the breadth of the body in the water, extending the arms as far as possible to reduce wave resistance. Just before plunging into the pool, swimmers may perform exercises such as squatting. Squatting helps in enhancing a swimmer’s start by warming up the thigh muscles.
Human babies demonstrate an innate swimming or diving reflex from newborn until the age of 6 months. Other mammals demonstrate this phenomenon; the diving response involves apnea, reflex bradycardia, peripheral vasoconstriction. Because infants are innately able to swim, classes for babies of about 6 months old are offered in many locations; this makes strong swimmers from a young age. Swimming can be undertaken using a wide range of styles, known as'strokes,' and these strokes are used for different purposes, or to distinguish between classes in competitive swimming, it is not necessary to use a defined stroke for propulsion through the water, untrained swimmers may use a'doggy paddle' of arm and leg movements, similar to the way four-legged animals swim. There are four main strokes used in competition and recreation swimming: the front crawl known as freestyle, the breaststroke, the backstroke and the butterfly. Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800 using the breaststroke. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions.
The butterfly stroke developed in the 1930s, was considered a variant of the breaststroke until accepted as a separate style in 1953. Butterfly is considered the hardest stroke by many people, but it is the most effective for all-around toning and the building of muscles, it burns the most calories. Other strokes exist for specific purposes, such as training or rescue, it is possible to adapt strokes to avoid using parts of the body, either to isolate certain body parts, such as swimming with arms only or legs only to train them harder, or for use by amputees or those affected by paralysis. Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times, the earliest records of swimming date back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC; some of the earliest references include the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible and other sagas. The coastal tribes living in the volatile Low Countries were known as excellent swimmers by the Romans. Men and horses of the Batavi tribe could cross the Rhine without losing formation, according to Tacitus.
Dio Cassius describes one surprise tactic employed by Aulus Plautius against the Celts at the Battle of the Medway: The thought that Romans would not be able to cross it without a bridge, bivouacked in rather careless fashion on the opposite bank. Thence the Britons retired to the river Thames at a point near where it empties into the ocean and at flood-tide forms a lake; this they crossed because they knew where the firm ground and the easy passages in this region were to be found, but the Romans in attempting to follow them were not so successful. However, the swam across again and some others got over by a bridge a little way up-stream, after which they assailed the barbarians from several sides at once and cut down many of them." In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a Swiss professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming. There are many reasons why people swim, from swimming as a recreational pursuit to swimming as a necessary pa
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is an individual or team sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in open water. Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with varied distance events in butterfly, breaststroke and individual medley. In addition to these individual events, four swimmers can take part in either a freestyle or medley relay. A medley relay consists of four swimmers; the order for a medley relay is: backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Swimming each stroke requires a set of specific techniques. There are regulations on what types of swimsuits, caps and injury tape that are allowed at competitions. Although it is possible for competitive swimmers to incur several injuries from the sport, such as tendinitis in the shoulders or knees, there are multiple health benefits associated with the sport. Evidence of recreational swimming in prehistoric times has been found, with the earliest evidence dating to Stone Age paintings from around 10,000 years ago.
Written references date from 2000 BC, with some of the earliest references to swimming including the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, the Quran and others. In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a Swiss professor of languages, wrote the first book about swimming, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming. Swimming emerged as a competitive recreational activity in the 1830s in England. In 1828, the first indoor swimming pool, St George's Baths was opened to the public. By 1837, the National Swimming Society was holding regular swimming competitions in six artificial swimming pools, built around London; the recreational activity grew in popularity and by 1880, when the first national governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association was formed, there were over 300 regional clubs in operation across the country. In 1844 two Native American participants at a swimming competition in London introduced the front crawl to a European audience. Sir John Arthur Trudgen picked up the hand-over stroke from some South American natives and debuted the new stroke in 1873, winning a local competition in England.
His stroke is still regarded as the most powerful to use today. Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim the English Channel, in 1875. Using the breaststroke technique, he swam the channel 21.26 miles in 45 minutes. His feat was not replicated or surpassed for the next 36 years, until T. W. Burgess made the crossing in 1911. Other European countries established swimming federations; the first European amateur swimming competitions were in 1889 in Vienna. The world's first women's swimming championship was held in Scotland in 1892. Men's swimming became part of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902, the Australian Richmond Cavill introduced freestyle to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation, was formed. Women's swimming was introduced into the Olympics in 1912. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952. Competitive swimming became popular in the 19th century.
The goal of high level competitive swimming is to break personal or world records while beating competitors in any given event. Swimming in competition should create the least resistance in order to obtain maximum speed. However, some professional swimmers who do not hold a national or world ranking are considered the best in regard to their technical skills. An athlete goes through a cycle of training in which the body is overloaded with work in the beginning and middle segments of the cycle, the workload is decreased in the final stage as the swimmer approaches competition; the practice of reducing exercise in the days just before an important competition is called tapering. Tapering is used to give the swimmer's body some rest without stopping exercise completely. A final stage is referred to as "shave and taper": the swimmer shaves off all exposed hair for the sake of reducing drag and having a sleeker and more hydrodynamic feel in the water. Additionally, the "shave and taper" method refers to the removal of the top layer of "dead skin", which exposes the newer and richer skin underneath.
This helps to "shave" off mere milliseconds on your time. Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 16 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50-meter pool, called a long course pool. There are forty recognized individual swimming events in the pool; the international governing body for competitive swimming is the Fédération Internationale de Natation, better known as FINA. In open water swimming, where the events are swum in a body of open water, there are 5 km, 10 km and 25 km events for men and women. However, only the 10 km event is included in the Olympic schedule, again for both women. Open-water competitions are separate to other swimming competitions with the exception of the World Championships and the Olympics. In competitive swimming, four major styles have been established; these have been stable over the last 30–40 years with minor improvements. They are: Butterfly Backstroke
2011 World Aquatics Championships
The 14th FINA World Championships were held on July 16–31, 2011 in Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming, water polo, open water, synchronized swimming. At this championships, synchronized swimmer Natalia Ishchenko, of Russia, was the most decorated competitor winning all six gold medals of her events, at solo and team routines; these championships served as qualifying stages for the 2012 Summer Olympics. FINA announced Shanghai as the host on March 2007, over other finalist Doha, Qatar. All dates are CST * Host Nation * Host nation. Diving was contested at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from July 16–24. China came out on top in the gold medal count in the diving swimming competition with ten golds, winning all events. On the first day of competition on July 16, host nation China won the first gold medal of the meet in the women's 3 m synchro springboard; the duo of Wu Minxia and He Zi had a score of 356.40 to win by more than 40 points ahead of Canadians Émilie Heymans and Jennifer Abel.
On the second day of competition, the Chinese duo of Qiu Bo and Huo Liang won gold in the men's 10 m synchro platform with a score of 480.03. On the third day of competition, two finals were held. In the men's 1 m springboard, China continued its strong performance with a 1-2 finish, with Li Shixin winning the gold and He Min winning the silver. In the women's 10 m synchro platform, the Chinese duo of Wang Hao and Chen Ruolin won gold with a score of 362.58 points. On the fourth day of competition, two finals were held and China continued its dominance. In the women's 1 m springboard, China finished 1-2 with Shi Tingmao winning the gold and Wang Han taking the silver. In the men's 3 m synchro springboard, the Chinese duo of Qin Kai and Luo Yutong won the gold with a score of 463.98. On the fifth day of competition, China swept the women's 10 m platform, with Chen Ruolin winning the gold and Hu Yadan winning the silver. On the sixth day of competition, China won gold in the men's 3 m springboard.
However, it was the first individual event in the diving competition in which China did not go 1-2, with Russian diver Ilya Zakharov taking the silver. On the seventh day of competition, China won gold in the women's 3 m springboard with Wu Minxia taking the gold and He Zi winning the silver. On the eight and last day of competition, China won gold in the men's 10 m platform. In winning this event, China won all the possible golds in the diving competition; the open water swimming competition featured 7 events. The open water swimming competition was contested at the Jinshan City Beach from July 19–23. Germany came out on top in the gold medal count in the open water swimming competition with one gold, two silvers, one bronze. On the first day of competition on July 19, British Keri-Anne Payne won the first gold of the open water competition in the women's 10 km. On the second day of competition, Greek Spyridon Gianniotis won the gold in the men's 10 km, finishing ahead of German Thomas Lurz. On the third day of competition, the American threesome of Andrew Gemmell, Ashley Twichell and Sean Ryan won gold in the 5 km team event in a tallied time of 57:00.6.
On the fourth day of competition, two events were held, the women's and men's 5 km. In the women's 5 km, Swiss Swann Oberson won the gold in a time of 1:00:39.7. In the men's 5 km, German Thomas Lurz won gold in a time of 56:16.2. On the fifth and last day of competition, two events were held, the men's and women's 25 km. In the men's 25 km, Bulgarian Petar Stoychev won the gold in a time of 5:10:39.8. In the women's 25 km, Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha won the gold in a time of 5:29:22.9. Four women and 10 men who started the 25 km competition did not complete the race because water temperatures reached what FINA says is an unsafe level for competition; the swimming competition featured races in a long course pool in 40 events. The events were held at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center from July 24–31; the United States lead the gold medal count in the swimming competition with sixteen golds. Overall, the United States came out on top in the swimming competition with twenty-nine medals. A total of two world records were set during the swimming competition.
Just two years ago, at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, 43 world records were set. This is attributed to high-tech bodysuits being banned in January 2010. American Ryan Lochte won the most gold medals among the male competitors with five and was named the best male swimmer of the championships. American Rebecca Soni won a total of three golds and one bronze medal and was named the best female swimmer of the championships. American Michael Phelps had the most overall medals in the competition with seven. On the first day of competition on July 24, four finals were contested, the women's and men's 400 m freestyle and women's and men's 4×100 m freestyle relay. In the women's 400 m freestyle, Italian Federica Pellegrini defended her 2009 crown and crushed the field to win gold in a time of 4:01.97, over two seconds ahead of British Rebecca Adlington. In the men's 400 m freestyle, Korean Park Tae-Hwan won the gold in a time of 3:42.04, over one second ahead of second-place finisher Chinese Sun Yang.
After the 400 m freestyle event was men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay. In the women's 4×100 m freestyle relay, the Dutch team of Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Marleen Veldhuis, Femke Heemskerk finished ahead of
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo and Yonkers. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,252, its metropolitan area had a population of 662,577, it is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over one million inhabitants. Syracuse is well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex. Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city Syracuse, a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily; the city has functioned as a major crossroads over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals of the railway network. Today, Syracuse is at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90, its airport is the largest in the region. Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, a major research university, as well as Le Moyne College, a nationally recognized liberal arts college. In 2010, Forbes rated Syracuse fourth among the top 10 places in the U.
S. to raise a family. French missionaries were the first Europeans to come to this area, arriving to work with the Native Americans in the 1600s. At the invitation of the Onondaga Nation, one of the five nations of the Iroquois confederacy, a group of Jesuit priests and coureurs des bois set up a mission, known as Sainte Marie among the Iroquois, or Ste. Marie de Gannentaha, on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake. Jesuit missionaries reported salty brine springs around the southern end of what they referred to as "Salt Lake", known today as Onondaga Lake in honor of the historic tribe. French fur traders established trade throughout the New York area among the Iroquois. Dutch and English colonists were traders, the English nominally claimed the area, from their upstate base at Albany. During the American Revolutionary War, the decentralized Iroquois divided into groups and bands that supported the British, two tribes that supported the American-born rebels, or patriots. Settlers came into central and western New York from eastern parts of the state and New England after the American Revolutionary War and various treaties with and land sales by Native American tribes.
The subsequent designation of this area by the state of New York as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation provided the basis for commercial salt production. Such production took place from the late 1700s through the early 1900s. Brine from wells that tapped into halite beds in the Salina shale near Tully, New York, 15 miles south of the city, were developed in the 19th century, it is the north-flowing brine from Tully, the source of salt for the "salty springs" found along the shoreline of Onondaga Lake. The rapid development of this industry in the 18th and 19th centuries led to the nicknaming of this area as "The Salt City"; the original settlement of Syracuse was a conglomeration of several small towns and villages, was not recognized with a post office by the United States Government. Establishing the post office was delayed because the settlement did not have a name. Joshua Forman wanted to name Corinth; when John Wilkinson applied for a post office in that name in 1820, it was denied because the same name was in use in Saratoga County, New York.
Having read a poetical description of Syracuse, Wilkinson saw similarities to the lake and salt springs of this area, which had both "salt and fresh water mingling together". On February 4, 1820, Wilkinson proposed the name "Syracuse" to a group of fellow townsmen; the first Solvay Process Company plant in the United States was erected on the southwestern shore of Onondaga Lake in 1884. The village was called Solvay to commemorate Ernest Solvay. In 1861, he developed the ammonia-soda process for the manufacture of soda ash from brine wells dug in the southern end of Tully valley and limestone; the process was an improvement over the earlier Leblanc process. The Syracuse Solvay plant was the incubator for a large chemical industry complex owned by Allied Signal in Syracuse. While this industry stimulated development and provided many jobs in Syracuse, it left Onondaga Lake as the most polluted in the nation; the salt industry declined after the Civil War. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, numerous businesses and stores were established, including the Franklin Automobile Company, which produced the first air-cooled engine in the world.
The Geneva Medical College was founded in 1834. It is now known as Upstate Medical University, one of four medical colleges in the State University of New York system, one of only five medical schools in the state north of New York City. On March 24, 1870, Syracuse University was founded; the State of New York granted the new university its own charter, independent of Genesee College, which had unsuccessfully tried to move to Syracuse the year before. The university was founded as coeducational. President Peck stated at the opening ceremonies, "The conditions of admission shall be equal to all persons... There shall be no invidious discrimination here against woman.... Brains and heart shall have a fair chance... Syracuse attracted a high proportion of women students. In the College of Liberal Arts, the ratio between
Swimming at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay
The women's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 6 August at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium. As expected, the Australian women's team solidified its triumph to set a new world record and defend the Olympic title in one of the program's freestyle relay races with the help of sterling final legs from sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell. Trailing half of the race with a marginal lead from the Americans, Bronte booted the Australians to the front with a third-leg split of 52.15, before her sister Cate put on a fastest finish at the anchor leg to deliver the foursome of Emma McKeon and Brittany Elmslie a gold-medal time in 3:30.65. Moreover, they managed to break their own world record, set at the Commonwealth Games two years earlier, by a third of a second; the U. S. team of Simone Manuel and Abbey Weitzeil handed Dana Vollmer the third-leg duties to maintain their lead, but Vollmer's split of 53.18 was just a second behind Bronte Campbell that pushed Australia to the front.
As Katie Ledecky dove into the pool at the final exchange with a split of 52.79, she could not catch Cate Campbell near the wall to leave the Americans with a silver medal in 3:31.89. Meanwhile, Sandrine Mainville, Chantal Van Landeghem, Taylor Ruck, Penny Oleksiak ended Canada's 20-year medal drought for the female swimmers by taking home the bronze in 3:32.89. The Dutch quartet of Marrit Steenbergen, Femke Heemskerk, Inge Dekker, three-time gold medalist Ranomi Kromowidjojo fell short of the medal podium with a fourth-place time in 3:33.81, while Sweden, Italy and Japan vied for an Olympic medal. Earlier in the prelims, the Australian team of Elmslie, Campbell sisters Bronte and Cate, Madison Wilson grabbed the top seed with a 3:32.39 to overturn their own existing Olympic record by 86-hundredths of a second. The medals were presented by John Dowling Coates, Australia Vice President of the IOC and Dennis Miller, Vice President of FINA. Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were.
The following records were established during the competition: A total of sixteen countries have qualified to participate. The best eight from two heats advanced to the final
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