Classic Era

Fraser won the 100 m freestyle at Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964, the first swimmer of either sex to win the same event ...

Schollander won the 100 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle plus two relays in Tokyo, setting the single Games benchmark Mark Spitz an...

Konrads arrived in Australia as a Latvian refugee infant and rose to set world records across freestyle distances in 1958 at age 1...

Rose won the 400 m and 1500 m freestyle at Melbourne 1956 at age 17 and defended the 400 m at Rome 1960, adding relay golds for fo...

Madison won the 100 m freestyle, 400 m freestyle and relay at Los Angeles 1932, the first American woman to win three swimming gol...

The Helsinki Swimming Stadium was finished for the 1940 Games that war cancelled, then finally hosted Olympic swimming and diving ...

The outdoor Melbourne Olympic Pool staged Dawn Fraser and Murray Rose titles at the 1956 Games, the first Olympics held south of t...

The Stadio del Nuoto on the Foro Italico hillside hosted swimming at the 1960 Games amid marble statues from the 1930s sport forum...

Yoyogi National Gymnasium, built for Tokyo 1964, paired a dramatic suspension roof with an Olympic pool and arena and hosted swimm...

The North Channel between Ireland and Scotland runs about 35 km with water a few degrees colder than the English Channel and bloom...

New Zealand lifeguard Barrie Devenport swam from Cape Terawhiti on the North Island to the South Island on 20 November 1962 in 11 ...

Marilyn Bell of Toronto entered Lake Ontario in September 1954 after two other swimmers withdrew, and reached the Canadian shore a...

The Traversee internationale du Lac St-Jean began in 1955 as a roughly 30 km professional race across a cold glacial lake in Quebe...

Swimmers have crossed from Alcatraz to the mainland since long before the prison closed in 1963, with organized crossings regular ...