Now, that the world is swimming in the Summer Olympics fever, mentioning the word “butterfly” would rarely recall images of colourful insects flying around, rather than such of … Michael Phelps.
The athlete, who holds the all-time record for Olympic gold medals, surely has mastered the butterfly stroke; and mind you, it has a reputation of being quite exhausting and hard to master to perfection. Many swimmers and coaches consider it the most difficult swimming style, yet also one of the most spectacular ones.
The history of the butterfly stroke started in the 1930s when it developed as a style of swimming breaststroke and in 1952 the two strokes, butterfly and breaststroke, were completely separated to have their own rules. And while the Australian Sydney Cavill is credited as the inventor of the butterfly arms style, which was firstly used for a full length of breaststroke by the American Henry Myers in a 150 yard medley race in 1933, it is the American David Armbruster, the first swimming coach at the University of Iowa, who is credited for coining the name of the style, in 1934. In the following year, an university swimmer contributed to the style by the Dolphin kick technique, which at the time was violating the International Swimming Association rules and the Berlin 1936 Olympics saw a few swimmers daring to use the butterfly arms with a breaststroke kick.
As The New York Times reports, the style was considered quite contradictory at the time: “The men’s 200-metre breast-stroke..seemed to prove that the butterfly stroke is not all that some..think it is. “ Followed by the official 1936 Berlin Olympic Games Report: “The breast stroke swimmers used the butterfly style, which was a failure. “ And ending with The Times, 1938: “A proposal will be made that the Butterfly stroke be abolished from international competitions.”
The first appearances of the swimming style in print – with its insect-inspired name – were far from flying, but just as a butterfly transforming from a larva, through a pupa to an imago, the swimming style metamorphosed to bloom out and win its place as a separate swimming competition at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. And in the next year, the style got its own record at Encyclopaedia Britannica: “The butterfly is a competitive style only… In the butterfly the arms pull under the body all the way to the thighs, then emerge and fling forward above surface in circular motion.”
Let us try to dive deeply into the official FINA butterfly rules: “From the beginning of the first arm stroke after the start and each turn, the body shall be kept on the breast. Both arms shall be brought forward simultaneously over the water and brought backward simultaneously under the water through-out the race. All up and down movements of the legs must be simultaneous. At the start and at turns, a swimmer is permitted one or more leg kicks and one arm pull under the water, which must bring him to the surface. It shall be permissible for a swimmer to be completely submerged for a distance of not more than 15 meters.”
Sounds confusing? Swim up to the surface, take a breathe and watch how Phelps is doing it, but keep an eye on the new star, Joseph Schooling, as well.
