Girls Swimming

Girls swimming in pools and with boys are a modern pastime. Girls learning how to swim was not believed to be essential. In fact, female swimmers were frowned upon in sports events. The earliest pictures of young girls swimming indicate the restrictions placed upon them. Swimming, considered healthy in the late 1900s, is not a sport for delicate females. There are strictures upon their clothing and their behavior.

Girls, in the 1900s, swam as prescribed by society. Girls swimming fully clothed, awash in heavy, often woolen, garments splashed, in the water. Girls swimming covered themselves from head-to-toe. They did not reveal any skin. A girl swimming, or rather bathing, in the water remained modest.

This changed starting in the 1920s as swimming girls decided to swim in the water instead of bathing. In 1912, the first female swimmers took part in the Olympic Games. The modified outfits tantalized men and even offended feminists who felt the outfits detracted from the sport. A girl in a swim suit, many felt, left herself open to rude goggling and obscene male advances. Fortunately, the swimming girls as Olympians ignored the criticism and set about to prove they were athletes and not swimming beauties.

Nevertheless, to swim, girls had to cover themselves more than was practicable for their sport. The early outfits did not suit girls for swimming underwater. This changed as fashion and the love of swimming became prominent in communities across North America. A factor furthering the advance was the encouragement of higher levels of education. Girls on high school swimming teams and college girl swimmers soon established themselves as competitive athletes. They set the bars for young females and encouraged, by example, young girls swimming programs.

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Also helping promote girls swim ambitions were the female athletes and stars. Esther Williams combined swimming expertise and beauty. She parlayed it into a Hollywood Career. There are also the many Olympic swimmers who went to the games and came back winners. Since 1912, women swimmers have increased in number. Some have become American legends. This select group includes Shirley Babashoff, Janet Evans, Jenny Thompson, Summer Sanders and Dara Torres. To this, you can add Edith Brigitha of Curacao who swam for the Dutch in the 1976 Sumer Olympic Games. She was the first Black woman to win two Olympic gold medals.

A swimming girl has, today, so many different examples of swimming excellence. If she wishes to swim professionally, there is a variety of resources she can utilize to help her. This was not always so. Girl swimmers today have more opportunities than ever before to be an Olympic champion or to simply swim out of pure pleasure.