About

• Backstroke is exactly what its name implies, a stroke swum while on one’s back.

• The motion of it is such that it is the exact same motion as freestyle or the front crawl, but reversed due to being on one’s back.

• Unlike the other three Olympic strokes where swimmers launch themselves into the water off platforms, backstroke begins with the swimmer in the water, feet pressed high against the wall and hands gripping handles attached to the bottom of the stating platforms.

• At the start, the competitors launch themselves off the wall and attempt to stay airborne as long as possible before diving backwards underwater. This is done to reduce drag when underwater.

• The first several kicks of backstroke are done with the swimmer completely submerged. These kicks, as with the rest of the kicks done in backstroke, are known as flutter kicks, where the swimmer alternates upward and downward kicks with the legs, generating power and forward movement with the down kick and reloading with the upkick. The legs are allowed to come out of the water during these kicks, but more power is generated if the feet stay submerged.

• The stroke itself is nothing more than the front crawl, except instead of clockwise pulls with the arms, the backstroke swimmer’s arms move in a counterclockwise rotation.

• The main advantage of backstroke is the ability to breathe through out the stroke, but this is countered by the disadvantage of not being able to see where one is going. Most pools use flags or other overhead markers stretched across the width of the pool several meters before the wall so swimmers can know when they are approaching the turn.

• The turn is the most difficult of the four Olympic strokes. Swimmers are allowed to roll to their stomachs and make a single arm pull while facing downward in the front crawl position as they approach the wall. They then dip under the water and roll over again to have their backs facing the bottom as they simulataneously push off from the wall and travel back down the pool.

• Backstroke is the seconded slowest swimming stroke behind the breaststroke.

• Backstroke debuted at the 1900 Olympics.

• There are currently four backstroke events at the Olympics: Men’s and Women’s 100 M and 200 M.

Photo Courtesy of Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos Crédito: Satiro Sodré

Rules

• Prior to the starting signal, the swimmers shall line up in the water facing the starting end, with both hands holding the starting grips. Standing in or on the gutter or bending the toes over the lip of the gutter is prohibited.

• At the signal for starting and after turning the swimmer shall push off and swim upon his back throughout the race except when executing a turn as set forth in SW 6.4. The normal position on the back can include a roll movement of the body up to, but not including 90 degrees from horizontal. The position of the head is not relevant.

• When executing the turn there must be a touch of the wall with some part of the swimmer’s body. During the turn the shoulders may be turned over the vertical to the breast after which a continuous single arm pull or a continuous simultaneous double arm pull may be used to initiate the turn. The swimmer must have returned to the position on the back upon leaving the wall.

• The referee shall have full control and authority over all officials, approve their assignments, and instruct them regarding all special features or regulations related to the competitions. He shall enforce all rules and decisions of FINA and shall decide all questions relating to the actual conduct of the meet, and event or the competition, the final settlement of which is not otherwise covered by the rules.

• The best competitive times of all entrants for the preceding twelve (12) months prior to the entry deadline of the competition, shall be submitted on entry forms and listed in order of time by the Management Committee. Swimmers who do not submit official recorded times shall be considered the slowest and shall be placed at the end of the list with a no time. Placement of swimmers with identical times or of more than one swimmer without times shall be determined by draw. Swimmers shall be placed in lanes according to the procedures set forth in SW 3.1.2. below. Swimmers shall be placed in trial heats according to submitted times in the following manner.

• Where no preliminary heats are necessary, lanes shall be assigned in accordance with SW 3.1.2 above. Where preliminary heats or semi-finals have been held, lanes shall be assigned as in SW 3.1.2 based, however, on times established in such heats.

• In the event that swimmers from the same or different heats have equal times registered to 1/100 second for either the eighth place or sixteenth place, there shall be a swim-off to determine which swimmer shall advance to the appropriate finals. Such swim-off shall take place not less than one hour after all involved swimmers have completed their heat. Another swim-off shall take place if equal times are registered again.

Backstroke: Swimmers start the 200m backstroke at the 200 Sydney Games. Heat 6, Lenny Krayzelburg (USA), 1st.

Photo Courtesy of Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos Crédito: Satiro Sodré

List of Events

• Men’s 100 M
• Women’s 100 M
• Men’s 200 M
• Women’s 200 M

Medals for 2004 Summer Olympics

Men

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 M Backstroke	Aaron Peirsol, EUA 54.06	Markus Rogan, AUT 54.35	Tomomi Morita, JPN 54.36
200 M Backstroke	Aaron Peirsol, EUA 1:54.95	Markus Rogan, AUT 1:57.37	Razvan Florea, ROM 1:57.56

Women

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
100 M Backstroke	Natalie Coughlin, EUA 1:00.37	Kirsty Coventry, ZIM 1:00.50	Laure Manaudou, FRA 1:00.88
200 M Backstroke	Kirsty Coventry, ZIM 2:09.19	Stanislava Komarova, RUS 2:09.72	Reiko Nakamura, JPN 2:09.88

Photo Courtesy of Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos Crédito: Satiro Sodré

World Record Holder

Men’s:

• 100m backstroke Aaron Peirsol, USA 52.98 March 27, 2007
• 200m backstroke Ryan Lochte, USA 1:54.32 March 30, 2007

Women’s:

• 100m backstroke Natalie Coughlin, USA 59.44 March 27, 2007
• 200m backstroke Krisztina Egerszegi, HUN 2:06.62

Olympic Record Holder

Men’s:

• 100m Aaron Peirsol, USA 53.45 Aug. 21, 2004
• 200m Aaron Piersol, USA 1:55.14 Aug. 18, 2004

Women’s:

• 100m Natalie Coughlin, USA 59.68 Aug. 21, 2004
• 200m Krisztina Egerszegi, HUN 2:07.06 July 31, 1992

To read this page in portuguese, click here.

To learn more about backstroke and olympic games, read:

• Quick Facts About Olympic Aquatic Events - Freestyle
• Quick Facts About Olympic Aquatic Events - Breastroke
• Quick Facts About Olympic Aquatic Events - Butterfly
  

Sources:

• The International Olympic Committee, UK edition; http://www.olympic.org/uk/index_uk.asp
• The Official Site of the Beijing Games; http://en.beijing2008.cn/
• World Book Online Encyclopedia; www.worldbook.com
• Hickok Sports: A database of sports records; www.hickoksports.com