freestyle swimming Actions Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/sports/freestyle-swimming Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/sports/freestyle-swimming Also known as: crawl, front crawl Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jul 22, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents Also called: front crawl or crawl (Show more) Key People: Michael Phelps Ryan Lochte Katie Ledecky Libby Trickett Inge de Bruijn (Show more) freestyle, perhaps the most popular swimming stroke, used in both competitive and recreational swimming. It is performed by using an alternating overarm motion combined with a flutter kick. The freestyle has become the fastest of all strokes in the pool and is also the almost unanimous stroke of choice for distance swimming. The freestyle stroke emerged from various antecedents in the 19th century. In the 1870s English swimmer John Trugeon raced using a overarm motion combined with a frog kick, later called the Trugeon stroke, that he had reportedly learned from Indigenous people in South America. About 1893 Australian swimmer ...(100 of 417 words)

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