Swimming is one of the best sports in town, which makes swimmers look absolutely amazing and cool whenever they’re in the water. If you’re a swimmer at heart, a competitive swimmer or who sees swimming as a recreational activity, let me ask you this, how deep or how well do you know about swimming?
If you’re unsure about your answer, there’s really no need for you to worry because this article rounded up these 20 amazing facts about swimming not only as a sport or as a career but everything that comes in between that you might need and want to know.
And one thing’s for sure, you’ll be in great shock and waves of laughter while going through one fact to the other.
So, come and get along with the next pages and figure out these swimming facts you might never think are actually truer than true!
1. An Olympic-sized pool can sustain 9,400 baths
Olympic pools contain 660,000 gallons of water. Whereas, bathtubs can only carry about 70 gallons. That makes Olympic pools to take about 9,400 baths!
2. Hair causes friction in the water
You might not know the importance of swim caps to swimmers until you learn that hair causes or creates friction in the water, which may slow down the swimmers. That’s why some swimmers choose to shave their hair instead just to up their performance.
3. Fortunately, personalized swim caps are now available!
For people who aren’t into wearing swimming caps that can be bought in stores, you can now start liking to use one by having yourself, your family, and your friends a trendy and cool personalized swimming caps! Personalized swimming caps are custom-made swimming caps where you can have your personal logo, choose your desired colour, and even pick the material to be used for your swimming caps.
What do you think? Isn’t it nice and awesome?
4. Men were the only people privileged for the Olympic swimming back then
Swimming has been noted as an Olympic sport since 1896 but women were only entitled to compete not until the year 1912.
5. Swimming burns much more calories than cycling and running
If you think you’re doing great in burning your calories by cycling or running, well, you better know that you can burn 30% more calories when you go swimming. So, maybe you need to include swimming on the list of your health and fitness activities, right?
6. Swimming is an excellent full-body workout
Now that you know swimming also burns calories, you might want to know that it also enhances flexibility, strengthens the heart and lungs, and makes every muscle in the body get moving. That proves that swimming is no ordinary activity but an excellent full-body workout that’s beneficial for both your mind and body.
7. Swimmers also sweat in the pool
If you think that swimmers don’t get sweaty while under the water, well, you’re absolutely getting it wrong. It’s because swimmers sweat in the pool too!
8. Back in the 1300s, tortoise shells were used to produce the first swimming goggles
It may sound a little odd [and hard to believe], but yeah, rubber goggles weren’t created until the 1930s. Could you imagine how it feels to use swimming goggles out of tortoiseshells?
9. Titanic was the first-ever ocean liner to consist of a swimming pool
If you love it as a movie, you’ll love it more because Titanic is actually the earliest cruise ship to have a swimming pool. Swim on board! – oh, welcome aboard!
10. Swimming relieves stress effectively
It’s said that swimming is also one of the best recreational activities or sports to soothe stress, and boosts mood. So, if you’re suffering from anxiety and/or stress, get yourself some water therapy by going for a swim even for just an hour a day.
11. Freedivers can hold their breath for more than 10 minutes
Most people can only catch their breath for let’s say, a few seconds and people with actual training can hold it for 2 minutes. But know that there are freedivers who can hold their breath for more than 10 minutes!
12. Swimming makes you use all the muscles in your body
If you’re wondering why swimming is considered one of the best full-body exercise, it’s because swimming requires you to use all the muscles in your body.
13. Swimming is indeed a great tool for survival
Swimming isn’t just “swimming”. This sport or recreational activity is absolutely a beneficial tool for survival. Given that drowning is also considered one of the major causes of deaths.
14. Kids can take swimming classes for as early as two months
If you have children in your family, you might want to know that you can take them or enrol them to swimming classes as soon as they reach two months.
For more exciting tips, check out this article: 5 Ways Parents Can Help Their Kids Engage in Swimming
15. Crawl is known to be the most popular stroke in swimming
Although the oldest stroke is breaststroke, for freestyle competitions and even in triathlons, the crawl is the stroke of choice. You want to know why? It’s because this is the fastest swimming stroke.
16. Swimming is one of the best exercises to maintain a healthy heart and lungs
Aside from eating healthy foods, you can keep your heart and lungs at their utmost performance by engaging yourself in swimming. By going for an hour or 30-minute swim daily, you can enhance your heart and lungs’ health effectively.
17. More than half of swimmers get to have shoulder problems
Since swimmers are intended to use their major muscles, they’re prone or associated with developing such shoulder problems.
18. The origin of swimming dates back to 2500 BCE
Several paintings found in Egypt picture ancient people swimming and that’s back in 2500 BCE.
19. Swimming is either a sport or a recreational activity
You don’t have to be a competitive swimmer to enjoy swimming simply because swimming can either be a sport or a fun recreational activity.
20. Swimming improves your breathing ability
In order to swim beneath the water effectively, you must know how to breathe properly. And as you learn the proper breathing practice, you’ll notice that your breathing performance also improves from time to time.
That’s just some of the best swimming facts you might want to know before you go for your next swimming schedule. If you think these facts are worth sharing and interesting, give us some of your kind words and share it with your family and friends as well!
AUTHOR BIO: 
Kath Ramirez embraced the dream of being a writer since she was in 4th grade. She took it seriously and she now writes for American SwimCaps, a respected company who offers custom swimming needs made in America and Europe. Aside from writing, Kath also keeps herself busy spending time with her family, cherishing the role of a mom to her fur babies, reading random books, and diving into the world of photography. She’s not even a pro at whatever she’s engaged into right now, but one thing she knows, she’s happy and that’s more than enough.
