People have been swimming since the Stone Age, which was, oh, um, about 2.9 million years ago. They didn’t start to race each other, however, until 1837, when the National Society of Great Britain began to hold competitions. Consequently the sport was a natural fit for the Olympic Games, when they started in 1896 in Athens, Greece. The suits were eventually found to be too helpful though and, in 2010, they were banned from competitive swimming.
