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Backstroke is one of the four major styles in swimming. Backstroke in swimming is the only competition that has a different start than the others. Backstroke is similar to upside down front crawl.

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One of the advantages of backstroke is easy breathing; the disadvantage, however, is not being able to see where they are going. This style has similar speed to butterfly. The speed for backstroke can reach up to 1.89 meter per second. In backstroke swimming competitions, there are three distances which are swum, these can be done in a 50-meter pool (long course) or a 25-meter pool (short course), some of the events are 50-meter backstroke, 100-meter backstroke, and 200-meter backstroke.

Backstroke is a part of a group/medley competition: 100-meter individual medley, 200-meter individual medley, 400-meter individual medley, and 4x100-meter medley relay. At the start of the race, the participants must line up in the water facing the opposite end. At the end of the race, the participants must touch the wall to indicate that he or she is done.

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Swimming Variations

• freestyle
• butterfly
• breaststroke
• Relay Swimming — a swimming race in which teams of four race consecutively.

Related Pages

• Swimming Summary
• More about the sport of swimming
• swimming at the Olympics
• Complete list of sports
• The Encyclopedia of Sports