Swimming was highly esteemed in ancient Greece and Rome, especially as a form of training for warriors. Competitions were held in Japan in the 1st century bc.

Five recognized strokes have evolved since the late 19th century. They are the crawl (also known as freestyle because it is the stroke of choice in freestyle competition), the first version of which was developed in the 1870s by the English swimmer John Arthur Trudgen; the alternating arm backstroke, first used in the 1912 Olympic Games by the American swimmer Harry Hebner; the breaststroke, the oldest style of swimming (known since the 17th century); the butterfly, developed in the 1930s by Henry Myers and other American swimmers and recognized in the 1950s as a separate kind of stroke; and the sidestroke, which was the basic stroke in the early years of competition but is now used only in non-competitive swimming.