{"id":236627,"date":"2017-01-12T14:00:11","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T21:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=236627"},"modified":"2017-01-12T10:33:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T17:33:15","slug":"the-olympic-event-that-almost-was-the-plunge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-olympic-event-that-almost-was-the-plunge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympic Event That Almost Was: The Plunge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Zach Breeding, Swimming World College Intern.<\/em><\/p>\n

A vast majority of the general public is aware of the four basic strokes in swimming and have a general idea of how each of them are done (which they love to demonstrate when asking swimmers about the sport). Swimmers, in comparison, are painfully aware of the minutiae of each stroke.<\/p>\n

However, there is a remote part of swimming history that both the layman and I would bet almost all swimmers are completely unaware of: The Plunge for Distance, or “the plunge,” for short.<\/p>\n

A Brief History of Swimming:<\/h2>\n

Competitive swimming emerged around 1830 in England with regular competitions being held by the year 1837. And then in 1867 the Amateur Swim Association was founded and to this day remains a very active organization.<\/p>\n

At the advent of competitive swimming breaststroke was the most common method of moving through the water for the British as it was seen as more formal and allowed one to keep their head above the water. However, in 1873 the front crawl (or freestyle as it is called now) was introduced formally and quickly became the only method of swimming as it was much faster.<\/p>\n

The other three strokes came in subsequent years as the sport advanced with backstroke being officially swum at the Olympics in 1900, and breaststroke being phased back in with its very own event at the Olympics in 1904. The final of the four, butterfly, made its Olympic debut in 1956. But there exists a fifth Olympic swim technique that made its mark on the world and just as quickly vanished.<\/p>\n

The Plunge:<\/h2>\n

The Plunge\u00a0was an event in early swimming history that reached its peak popularity in the late 19th and early 20th century. it was defined by the American Swim Association as\u00a0“a dive from a stationary take-off which is free from spring from a height of 18 inches above the water. Upon reaching the water the plunger glides face downward for a period of 60 seconds without imparting any propulsion to the body from the arms and legs.” The distance from the furthest extended part of the swimmers body back to the start was then measured and a winner was determined.<\/p>\n