The document discusses individual medley and medley relay swimming events. It explains that individual medley consists of one swimmer swimming equal distances of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle in a single race. Medley relay involves four swimmers, each swimming a different stroke in a set order. The document provides details on techniques for turning and pushing off the wall between strokes, as well as various individual medley and medley relay event distances and records.

2. • AsifKhan
(Sport s scientist )

4.  Medley is a combination of four different swimming
styles —breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly stroke, and
freestyle— into one race. This race is either swum by
one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four
swimmers as a medley relay.

5.  Individual medley consists of a single swimmer
swimming equal distances of four different strokes
within one race.

6.  Individual medley consists of four strokes. Usually
each stroke has an equal part of the overall distance,
i.e. 1/4 of the overall distance is swum in one stroke.
The strokes are swum in this order:
 Butterfly
 Backstroke
 Breaststroke
 Freestyle (this can be any stroke except the butterfly,
backstroke, or breaststroke; most swimmers use the
front crawl)

8.  A number of competitions in the individual medley
are regularly contested, by both men and women.
 The competitions are limited in that every distance
must consist of either four lengths of the pool (100
yard or meter) or a multiple of four lengths (200 or 400
yard or meter), so that no stroke must change mid-
length.
 Regardless of the length of the individual medley,
each stroke comprises a quarter of the overall distance.

9.  100 m/yd individual medley: Swum in short course
(25 m/yd pool) competition only. This is not an
Olympic event.
 400 m individual medley: Swum in both short course
and long course competitions. This has been an
Olympic event since the 1964 Summer Olympics,
Tokyo, Japan.

10.  200 m/yd individual medley: Swum in both short
course and long course (50 m pool) competitions. This
was swum as an Olympic event in the 1968 Summer
Olympics, Mexico City, Mexico but then omitted until
the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, United
States. The event has been swum ever since.

12.  The technique for individual medley events does not
differ much from the technique for the separate events
for the four strokes.
 The main difference is the turning technique needed
at the transition from one stroke to the next stroke.
 Each section has to be completed as described by the
stroke rules of this section.

13.  The butterfly stroke section has to be ended with both
hands touching the wall at the same time, but has to
leave the wall on the back for backstroke.
 Swimmers may do this by pulling the knees
underneath of their body after touching the wall with
both hands, and then rolling backwards on their back,
or swinging one arm back and rolling over onto the
side of the arm swung back.
 During the roll in the first method the arms are not
stretched, but rather hold close to the body with the
hands a few centimeters in front of the chest.

14.  This reduces the rotational moment and allows for a
faster turn. At the end of the backwards roll the
swimmer sinks under water and extends over the head.
 The swimmer then pushes off the wall with both legs
and starts the regular underwater phase of backstroke,
usually a dolphin kick for up to 15 m before surfacing
and swimming normal backstroke.

17.  The backstroke section has to end with touching the wall
while lying on the back. For the subsequent breaststroke
the swimmer has to leave the wall on the breast.
 Most swimmers prefer to do an open turn, simply driving
the feet into the wall. The swimmer is then under water
face down and extends the hands forward before pushing
off the wall with both legs.
 The swimmer continues with the regular breaststroke,
consisting of a gliding phase, an underwater pull-down,
and another gliding phase before surfacing and swimming
normal breaststroke. A newer, but not required technique
for the backstroke to breaststroke turn is a backflip turn

18.  . The swimmer touches on his or her backside with one
hand. After touching the wall, the swimmer tucks their
knees up to their stomach and flips around so that
their feet are touching the wall pointing down and
they can push off of the wall on their stomach.
 Another, arguably faster variation of the new
backstroke to breaststroke turn is very similar to the
regular forward flipturn. The swimmer goes into the
wall with their leading arm outstretched behind their
head.

19.  The swimmer then touches the wall and immediately
goes into a front flip and proceeds with the
breaststroke portion of the race.
 With this turn, it is crucial that the swimmer remains
technically on their back until they touch the wall,
which means that the front of the body should be
rotated chest-side up more than it is chest-side down,
otherwise the swimmer will be disqualified.

22.  The breaststroke section has to be ended with both
hands touching the wall at the same time while on the
breast. A normal breaststroke turn is usually used to
turn and push off the wall. After leaving the wall the
freestyle underwater phase is initiated, followed by
regular freestyle on the surface after up to 15 m
underwater. For medley events, freestyle means any
style other than backstroke, breaststroke or butterfly.
Some form of front crawl is typically used.

25.  Medley relay consists of four different swimmers in
one relay competition, each swimming one of the four
strokes.

26.  Medley relay is swum by four different swimmers, each
swimming one of the four strokes.
 Backstroke is the first event as backstroke is started
from the water. If backstroke were not the first event,
the starting backstroke swimmer and the finishing
previous swimmer could block each other.
 The remaining strokes are sorted according to the
speed, with breaststroke being the slowest and
freestyle being the fastest stroke.

27.  The order of the strokes is as follows:
 Backstroke
 Breaststroke
 Butterfly
 Freestyle the only limitation being that none of
backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly stroke may be
used for this leg. Most swimmers use the front crawl.

28.  There are a number of competitions swum regularly in
medley relay, both by men and women.
 4×50 m/yd medley relay: Swum in both short course
and long course pools. This is not an Olympic
competition.
 4×100 m/yd medley relay: Swum in both short course
and long course pools. This was the first Olympic
medley competition and is swum since the 1960
Summer Olympics, Rome, Italy. The first Olympic
butterfly event itself was first swum in the previous
1956 Summer Olympics.

29.  FINA rules require that a foot of the second, third or
fourth swimmer must be contacting the platform while
(and before) the incoming teammate is touching the
wall.
 The starting swimmer may already be in motion,
however, which saves 0.6–1 seconds compared to a
regular start.
 Furthermore, many swimmers may perform better in a
relay than in an individual race owing to a team spirit
atmosphere.
 As a result, relay times are typically 2–3 second faster
than the sum of best times of individual swimmers.

30.  These are the official rules of the FINA regarding
medley swimming:
 In individual medley events, the swimmer covers the
four swimming styles in the following order: butterfly,
backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
 In medley relay events, swimmers will cover the four
swimming styles in the following order: backstroke,
breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
 Each section must be finished in accordance with the
rule which applies to the style concerned.

31.  Freestyle includes a special regulation for medley
events:
 Freestyle means that in an event so designated the
swimmer may swim any style, except that in individual
medley or medley relay events, freestyle means any
style other than backstroke, breaststroke or butterfly.

32. MENS

33. 200 m
individu
al
medley
Ryan
Lochte
(USA)
1:54.00 Shanghai
, China
July 28,
2011
400 m
individual
medley
Michael
Phelps
(USA)
4:03.84 Beijing,
China
August
10, 2008
4x100 m
medley
relay United
States
3:27.28
Rome,
Italy
August
2, 2009

34. WOMENS

35. 200 m
individu
al
medley
Katinka
Hosszú
(HUN)
2:06.12
Kazan,
Russia
August
3, 2015
400 m
individu
al
medley
Katinka
Hosszú
(HUN)
4:26.36 Rio de
Janeiro,
Brazil
August
6, 2016
4x100 m
medley
relay
United
States
3:52.05
London,
UK
August
4, 2012