# Non-front crawl freestyle at the Olympics
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 9, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619 "2010-10-09T17:47:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/1 "2010-10-09T17:47:40Z")
In freestyle swimming events, participants are free to use any swimming style (with the exception that in medley events, they cannot use the backstroke, butterfly, or breaststroke). It seems that at the Olympic level all participants use the front crawl, though at lower-level competitions I’m told it’s not unheard of (albeit exceedingly rare) for swimmers to use the backstroke.
Has there ever been a swimmer at the Olympics who used something other than front crawl in a freestyle event? If so, when’s the last time this happened?
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2011, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/2 "2011-03-22T16:40:15Z")
I believe I’m allowed a bump, so here it is…
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/3 "2011-03-22T16:55:51Z")
It would probably have to be a least a century ago, and it’s quite possible it was never done. A look at the Olympic records for the strokes shows why:
100m freestyle: 45.07
100m butterfly: 50.58
100m backstroke: 52.54
100m breast stroke: 58.91
The fastest of these is five seconds slower than the overhand crawl. That’s a big difference in an event that it often decided by hundreths of seconds.
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### Author:  [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/4 "2011-03-22T16:56:25Z")
I think you could always use the [trudgen style](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trudgeon), but as it has been replaced by the crawl I must assume that the latter is more efficient.
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### Author:  [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/5 "2011-03-22T21:20:36Z")
A thread on the subject from [2004](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=271670&highlight=swimming+freestyle).
Gosh, my brain must be getting close to full since I still had some of the details that I learned in that thread vaguely rattling around in my head 7 years on…
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### Author:  [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/6 "2011-03-22T22:46:45Z")
Note that in the medley (individual or relay) you can’t repeat any of the other strokes.
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### Author:  [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/7 "2011-03-23T12:46:58Z")
All of these events have very specific rules for starts, turns and finishes in addition to the required strokes. Freestyle is a bit more … free … in these areas as well.
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/8 "2011-03-23T12:52:10Z")
Do the backstroke, butterfly or breast stroke have any practical applications? What’s the point of them?
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2011, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-front-crawl-freestyle-at-the-olympics/556619/9 "2011-03-23T12:58:29Z")
> [@thirdname](#):
>
> Do the backstroke, butterfly or breast stroke have any practical applications? What’s the point of them?
You could equally ask, does freestyle have any practical applications? They are all used, practically, in races.
Most people I see swimming in context other than races use a combination of strokes and kicks (primarily breaststroke/crawl) and occasionally go on their backs.
Lifesavers often use a variation of freestyle/crawl with their heads out the water, to see the person they are rescuing. On the way back, to tow the victim to shore they often use sidestroke, which again is radically different.