What did Olympic Swimming Look Like in 1896? | The Swim Scribe

When you think of swimming at the Olympics your mind might jump back to some of the last couple of Olympic Games, like the 2024 Olympics in Paris where we watched Leon Marchand shine in front of a home crowd, or the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 where we watched athletes triumph after a longer than usual Olympic Cycle. Maybe you think of Michael Phelps going 8 for 8 in Olympic golds in 2008, or MAYBE you go back a little further to the times of other legends of the sport like Mark Spitz or Michael Gross. But I doubt any of you think back to 1896 Olympic Games, the first Olympics of the modern era, with a swimming competition completely unrecognizable compared to the swimming of today.