Swimming has been recorded since prehistoric times; the earliest recording of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. In 1578, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens.

In fact, some of the first records of organized swimming trace the activity back to Ancient Egypt and the year 2500 BC. Swimming pools were used in Ancient Greece around 800 BC for bathing and exercise, and in Ancient Rome, around 100 BC, bathhouses and swimming pools were communal gathering places.

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, Beowulf, the Quran and others.

Swimming started its sporting journey in the mid-19th century, when the world’s first swimming organisation was formed in London in 1837. Inevitably, things soon became competitive and, in 1846, the first swimming championship was held in Australia.