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Freestyle isn't a stroke, technically. You can swim any stroke that you like[0], and swimmers usually choose the front crawl. [0] provided that you don't swim

Freestyle isn't a stroke, technically. You can swim any stroke that you like[0], and swimmers usually choose the front crawl. [0] provided that you don't swim the whole thing underwater

jessaustin 10y ago
Yeah that's the point. They can get rid of the races in which the "proper" stroke is specified in complicated fashion.
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  I've always thought butterfly was a bizarre event. It's one of the most complicated strokes, and it's slower and more tiring than the front crawl. As far as I'm concerned, it's an arbitrary stroke. I guess a lot of Olympic sports are arbitrarily limited though, walking and triple jump come to mind.
  - mdh 10y ago
    But all sports are bizarre if you boil them down in this way. They all rely on arbitrary limitation of participants or equipment to prevent them descending into a total free-for-all and becoming pointless. Its the same thing as art being about constraints - its having to deliver within certain 'arbitrary' bounds that make it a challenge and make it worthwhile.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    Yes the butterfly is egregious. At least the breaststroke is a rational refinement of the largely instinctive (even for humans) dog-paddle, and had a long history as a modern racing stroke before Native Americans taught everyone that the crawl was faster. Even fairly poor swimmers can breaststroke for long distances. The butterfly seems like a bizarro version of the breaststroke, slightly faster but much more difficult and exhausting. They could add any additional arbitrary requirement to the butterfly, and the result wouldn't really be more arbitrary than it already is. Perhaps swimming should take weightlifting as an example. This discipline requires lifters to perform two lifting techniques, the "snatch" and the "clean and jerk", and combines those to get the final result. This is similar to "medley" swim races, which may be a reasonable compromise between the current four-stroke insanity and eliminating stroke requirements altogether. Walking is at least a natural gait. Triple jump is a single event, so it doesn't have the multiplicative effects that swimming strokes have.
  - caf 10y ago
    Butterfly is actually the second-fastest stroke, at least over the shorter distances. There have been swimmers in the past that have used the butterfly stroke in freestyle races at high level events.
    - toomanybeersies 10y ago
      But that's the issue. It's not an optimal stroke for anything. It's not the fastest, it's tiring, and it's difficult to do. It's like making a running race where you have to do a small jump every step.

Freestyle isn't a stroke, technically. You can swim any stroke that you like[0], and swimmers usually choose the front crawl. [0] provided that you don't swim the whole thing underwater

jessaustin 10y ago

Yeah that's the point. They can get rid of the races in which the "proper" stroke is specified in complicated fashion.

toomanybeersies 10y ago
I've always thought butterfly was a bizarre event. It's one of the most complicated strokes, and it's slower and more tiring than the front crawl. As far as I'm concerned, it's an arbitrary stroke. I guess a lot of Olympic sports are arbitrarily limited though, walking and triple jump come to mind.
- mdh 10y ago
  But all sports are bizarre if you boil them down in this way. They all rely on arbitrary limitation of participants or equipment to prevent them descending into a total free-for-all and becoming pointless. Its the same thing as art being about constraints - its having to deliver within certain 'arbitrary' bounds that make it a challenge and make it worthwhile.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  Yes the butterfly is egregious. At least the breaststroke is a rational refinement of the largely instinctive (even for humans) dog-paddle, and had a long history as a modern racing stroke before Native Americans taught everyone that the crawl was faster. Even fairly poor swimmers can breaststroke for long distances. The butterfly seems like a bizarro version of the breaststroke, slightly faster but much more difficult and exhausting. They could add any additional arbitrary requirement to the butterfly, and the result wouldn't really be more arbitrary than it already is. Perhaps swimming should take weightlifting as an example. This discipline requires lifters to perform two lifting techniques, the "snatch" and the "clean and jerk", and combines those to get the final result. This is similar to "medley" swim races, which may be a reasonable compromise between the current four-stroke insanity and eliminating stroke requirements altogether. Walking is at least a natural gait. Triple jump is a single event, so it doesn't have the multiplicative effects that swimming strokes have.
- caf 10y ago
  Butterfly is actually the second-fastest stroke, at least over the shorter distances. There have been swimmers in the past that have used the butterfly stroke in freestyle races at high level events.
  - toomanybeersies 10y ago
    But that's the issue. It's not an optimal stroke for anything. It's not the fastest, it's tiring, and it's difficult to do. It's like making a running race where you have to do a small jump every step.