History of Swimming: From Survival to Trendy Sport

Nearly a decade after his historic try to swim the Atlantic Ocean, endurance swimmer Ben Hooper displays on humanity’s lengthy, difficult relationship with water — and why swimming has all the time been about excess of sport

This November would be the 10th anniversary of my Atlantic Ocean attempt —a world-first verified bid to swim the 1,864 miles From Africa to Brazil. Or, put much less heroically, a chronic train in placing one arm in entrance of the opposite whereas the ocean repeatedly prompt I rethink my life selections.

A decade on, it feels shut sufficient to nonetheless sit within the shoulders, however distant sufficient to look nearly historic itself. That is the unusual factor about swimming. Even your individual swims start to assemble folklore the second they’re over. The ocean will get bigger. The nights get longer. The jellyfish develop into extra quite a few, extra tactical and, in reminiscence at the very least, barely extra vindictive.

But my very own swim historical past didn’t start within the Atlantic. It started in a swimming pool in Belgium in 1984, once I was 5 years previous and practically drowned. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve all the time understood that the historical past of swimming isn’t merely a narrative of medals, data and decided folks in goggles and budgie smugglers. 

It can also be a narrative of worry, survival, rescue, class, tradition, belonging and our cussed human behavior of underestimating water, seas and the mighty oceans that govern our on a regular basis lives and each breath we take.

That is what makes swimming historical past so fascinating: it is without doubt one of the oldest issues folks have completed, but it nonetheless feels oddly fashionable.

For most of human historical past, folks swam as a result of they needed to. They crossed rivers, escaped hazard, fished, washed, labored and fought. Long earlier than swimming grew to become one thing timed, coached and posted on-line with break up occasions and inspirational captions, it was sensible. If you might swim, that was helpful. If you might not, the results could possibly be closing.

Over time, although, swimming modified. It grew to become leisure, then standing, then spectacle. Ancient civilisations constructed baths round ritual, hygiene and social life. Later, swimming grew to become wrapped up in self-discipline, well being and morality. By the 19^th century, Britain had begun doing what Britain does greatest: organising one thing as soon as pure till it required guidelines, timetables and correct altering services.

Then got here the civic baths, the swimming golf equipment and ultimately the lido — maybe the best and most baffling British contribution to aquatic historical past. A lido is, primarily, a superbly designed outside place during which to be chilly on goal. It shouldn’t be all the time straightforward to elucidate to different nations, however there’s something undeniably noble in standing in drizzle beside turquoise water, insisting this counts as pleasure.

That, although, is a part of the allure of swim historical past: it’s by no means solely about pace however, as a substitute, about place. You can inform a fantastic deal a couple of society by the way it swims. In some locations, water is ritual. In others it’s competitors, labour, journey or escape. In Britain it’s typically all of these issues without delay, plus a flask of tea, a altering gown and, as one open-water fanatic from Bristol advised me cheerfully,, “It’s lovely once you’re in,” which stays one of many nation’s extra enduring falsehoods.

Our personal swim story is tied not simply to the ocean however to outside swimming pools, river bathing, seaside holidays and the sluggish, smart realisation that instructing folks to swim is perhaps an excellent thought on an island. The rise of the lido within the early 20^th century was not nearly recreation. It mirrored public well being, civic pleasure and a extra democratic thought of leisure. Swimming was not reserved for the rich, the naval or the naturally amphibious. It was changing into public, shared and a part of extraordinary life.

That query of entry issues, as a result of swimming has all the time mirrored wider society. It exhibits who will get classes, who will get inspired, who will get ignored and who grows up feeling the water is for them. History has not all the time been equal in that regard. Class, race, geography and alternative have all formed who swims and who doesn’t. Some communities inherit confidence in water; others inherit warning, exclusion or just the absence of alternative.

And but swimming additionally has a unprecedented potential to heal. Water strips away a number of the noise of land. It can soothe, regular and reset. For many individuals, particularly in open water, swimming is much less about sport than survival of one other sort — psychological, emotional, typically even religious. In intervals of stress and battle, folks have turned to water for aid in addition to recreation. There is one thing deeply human in in search of calm by getting into a component that may, beneath different circumstances, terrify us.

Of course, swim historical past doesn’t glide alongside in a neat line of progress and cheerful postcards. Water has all the time carried hazard. It doesn’t care whether or not you might be match, wealthy, native, skilled or stuffed with confidence after half an hour on social media. For each triumph — the good crossings, the Olympic medals and the unbelievable endurance feats — there may be one other story of misjudgement, poor entry, unhealthy situations or utter tragedy.

This stays true within the UK as we speak, with over 14 million adults still swimming regularly, whether or not in swimming pools, lakes, rivers or the ocean. It stays one of many nation’s hottest actions. But drowning figures — more than 500 drowning incidents in the UK reported in 2025; globally, over 300,000 annually — are a sobering reminder that familiarity shouldn’t be security. Many deaths happen not in dramatic oceans however in extraordinary inland waters, involving extraordinary folks in extraordinary conditions. The threat shouldn’t be all the time extremity. More typically, it’s assumption.

That pressure between pleasure and hazard would be the oldest theme in all of swim historical past. We are drawn to water, however we misinterpret it. We love its freedom however neglect its drive. We search peace in it and are shocked to find that water itself is gloriously detached to our seek for peace.

Then there may be controversy, as a result of no sport is ever as pure because it likes to suppose it’s, even one completely soaked in chlorine. Swimming has had its rows over expertise, equity, entry and governance. The ‘supersuit’ period, performance-enhancing medication too, confirmed how shortly a sport constructed on the perfect of pure human effort can discover itself arguing over what, precisely, counts as a ‘body’ and what counts as ‘equipment’. Even in its clear blue lanes, swimming carries the identical messiness as the remainder of the world.

Conflict has formed it too. Water has divided borders, served as an escape route, swallowed lives in struggle and develop into a spot of remembrance. Yet it has additionally completed the other.

Swimming has rebuilt confidence after trauma, introduced communities collectively and given folks a means again into their our bodies after worry. It might be battlefield and balm, hazard and therapeutic, historical past and hope. This is why swimming historical past issues now.

It isn’t just a nostalgic wander via bathing costumes, previous swimming pools and well-known races. It is a residing historical past. It tells us who feels welcome in water, who has been saved from it, how we perceive threat, and whether or not we deal with swimming as luxurious, life talent or public good.

And 10 years on from the Atlantic, that feels extra vital to me than ever. I nonetheless love the grand, ridiculous endurance tales. I’d be a hypocrite to not. After all, I’ve spent sufficient of my life voluntarily swimming in locations the place a superbly rational particular person would have remained dressed and ashore. 

But the larger query now shouldn’t be solely who swam furthest, quickest or first however who feels capable of enter the water in any respect, and who doesn’t — and whether or not they can do it safely and climb ashore after.

Which is exactly why a forthcoming documentary, No Lifeguard,  by Ed Accura, co-founder of the Black Swimming Association (BSA), feels so well timed. Because the subsequent chapter in swimming will not be about going additional, colder or extra excessive however fairly be about one thing way more vital: tradition, entry, accountability and security. Swim historical past has all the time been about greater than the swim itself, and No Lifeguard understands that. It asks who will get to really feel secure in water, who will get taught, who will get seen and what occurs after they don’t. 

Water has an extended reminiscence. It holds our triumphs, our blind spots, our freedoms and our failures. And if swimming historical past tells us something, it’s this: The story doesn’t finish after we get within the water; it begins earlier than we even arrive. 

Ben Hooper made world headlines along with his bid to swim each mile of the Atlantic Ocean — a problem Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE referred to as “the last great bastion to be conquered.” His four-month, 2,000-mile route from Senegal to Brazil, referred to as Swim the Big Blue, was derailed mid-Atlantic after his help vessel was broken by storms, regardless of him surviving a near-fatal encounter with hundreds of Portuguese Man O’War. He stays the one particular person with a WOWSA-verified try on the feat. Follow him on Instagram and X @TheBenHooper or by way of www.thebenhooper.com

READ MORE: ‘Diving into… Fuerteventura‘. Volcanic shores, Atlantic winds and secret turquoise lagoons. In Europe’s sunniest archipelago, surfers could rule the waves, however these keen to rise early will discover a number of the Atlantic’s most spectacular open-water swimming. Ben Hooper returns to Fuerteventura, an island he as soon as referred to as residence, within the newest instalment of his fashionable Diving Into… sequence for The European.

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