Lesson Eighty-One

Swimming

Hello Aquatic Friends and Landlubbers alike,

This week we step away from medicine and return to one of humanity’s oldest relationships with nature. Swimming seems so instinctive to us today that it is easy to forget its long, winding history, shaped by necessity, culture, science, and sport. From ancient cave paintings to the Olympic podium, the story of swimming offers insight into how humans first learned to master a medium that was never quite our own.

The Earliest Evidence of Swimming

The earliest record of swimming does not come from manuscripts or myths, but from images left behind on the walls of the Cave of Swimmers in southwestern Egypt. Whilst speculative, these depictions, uncovered by archaeologists, looks unmistakably like humans performing the breaststroke. These ancient drawings are estimated to be around 10,000 years old. Whether these images show ritual movement or simple representation of daily life, they remind us that swimming has been part of the human story since the dawn of settled civilization.

Early writings, like the Odyssey, reference swimming as an important survival skill. People crossed rivers, escaped danger, and proved their strength in water. But swimming was not yet a sport. It was a necessity.

Classical Swimming

Both the Greeks and Romans valued swimming. In Greece, to be unable to swim was considered socially embarrassing. A common insult of the time was that someone could “neither read nor swim.” For the Romans, swimming was integral to military preparation, and their extensive bathhouse culture helped normalize aquatic exercise. Still, while the Romans engineered aqueducts and baths on a monumental scale, they never invented organized swimming competitions.

A period of glass

After the fall of the Roman Empire, swimming declined in Europe. Bodies of water were associated with danger, disease, and superstition. Medieval Europeans rarely bathed, let alone swam, believing that water opened the pores to harmful “vapors", core to the Miasma Theory (oops back to medical history). While some cultures across Asia and the Pacific continued strong swimming traditions, Europe would not revive its interest in the water for centuries.

A Modern Splash

Swimming’s reawakening began during the Renaissance when curiosity, exploration, and science rebloomed. Leonardo da Vinci designed swimming aids (that look a lot like the inner tubes people use today).

In 1828, the first indoor public swimming pool opened in Liverpool, England. Swimming societies formed soon after, competitions were held, and strokes were standardized. The breaststroke dominated early contests until the “front crawl” or “Australian crawl” emerged in the late 19th century, borrowed and adapted from Indigenous Pacific Island techniques. This stroke would go on to define the sport.

Swimming made its Olympic debut in 1896, though athletes competed in open water, not pools. The first aquatic Olympic events took place in the Bay of Zea at the1896 Athens Olympics and in the River Seine at the 1900 Paris Olympics. By the early 20th century, competitive swimming was transformed by better pool designs, lane ropes, starting blocks, and eventually goggles. Technique evolved with scientific precision. Coaches began analyzing drag, body rotation, and energy efficiency to perfect the strokes we now know of.

Swimming Now

Today, swimming is one of the most popular forms of exercise around the world. It is an accessible, low-impact sport rooted in the same movements our ancestors first carved onto cave walls. We now understand the biomechanics of each stroke, the psychology of performance, and the importance of water safety better than ever.

Swimming has also become intertwined with public health education. Learning to swim contributes to self-esteem and reduces drowning risk, one of the leading causes of accidental death globally. Modern campaigns highlight equity in aquatic access, teaching children and adults of all backgrounds a skill once reserved for the elite or the fortunate.

Legacy

The history of swimming reflects humanity’s relationship with challenge, environment, and innovation. It is a reminder that even when faced with an element not naturally our own, we adapt, learn, and eventually glide.

Until next time, remember to embrace the lessons of history, but never get caught up in its cobwebs.

Warm regards,

Hugh