Swimming

Most Australians have at least basic swimming skills and take a keen interest in competitive swimming at Olympic level. The 1500 metre freestyle event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where Grant Hackett finally beat Kieren Perkins did stop a nation for about 15 minutes. Olympic swimming champions like Ian Thorpe and Dawn Fraser are national icons.

Australians value swimming as a survival skill, a recreation, a competitive sport and as the foundation for other water activities such as diving, water polo, synchronised swimming, surfing, snorkelling, scuba diving and spearfishing. Australian's interest in swimming boomed after WWII and particularly after the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Swimming is promoted as a lifelong sport and keep-fit exercise.

Because the standard swimming stroke in Australia is the freestyle stroke technically known as the crawl, swimming pools need to be deep enough so adult swimmers don't scratch their fingers on the bottom of the pool. This stroke was said to derive from the traditional stroke used in the Pacific islands once demonstrated by a young Alec Wickham at the Bronte Baths. Further refinement in Sydney developed the Australian crawl stoke used so successfully by many Australian Olympic swimmers.

Breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke are used in elite competition and in competitive club and school swimming, while sidestroke is still used in lifesaving classes. All of these strokes are seen far less often than freestyle. Busy public pools may allocate seven of their eight marked lanes to freestyle swimmers and perhaps one to breaststroke swimmers or people exercising in the pool. 

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