The first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens included four swimming events, all freestyle, open only to men. Alfred Hajos of Hungary won the first swimming gold medal in the modern Olympics for his time of 1:22.20 in the 100-meter freestyle.

At the next Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, women were still excluded from swimming events. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French scholar and sportsman who developed the modern Olympic Games, held the belief (common in Victorian times) that women were too frail for athletic competition. The swimming events at the Paris Olympics included three unusual experiments: an obstacle course for swimmers, a test of underwater swimming endurance, and a 4,000-meter event—about 2.4 miles, or 80 lengths of a 50-meter pool, the longest swimming event in competition thus far. (British swimmer John Arthur Jarvis won the event, clocking in at just under one hour.) None of these events was included in future Olympic Games.

Australian swimmer Richmond Cavill (known as “Playboy Dick”) used his own improved version of the “Trudgeon” crawl in the 1902 International Championships in England. His improvement: the flutter kick. He set a world record in the 100 yards, leaving in his wake all Trudgeon-style swimmers. His technique, labeled the “Australian crawl,” rapidly gained popularity. In 1950 the term “Australian crawl” was shortened to “crawl,” and then became known as the “front crawl.”

In 1907 the Australian swimmer and vaudeville performer Annette Kellerman brought to the New York Hippodrome Theater her “water ballet” act, which she performed in a glass tank. She is now credited with inventing the sport of synchronized swimming. Her snug-fitting one-piece bathing suit caused a scandal, and she was arrested on a Boston beach for “indecent exposure.” (At that time women were expected to wear a layered outfit consisting of a dress, bloomers and leggings when swimming.) She thereafter became an advocate for a woman’s right to wear a one-piece bathing suit, and she introduced her own line of women’s one-piece swimwear, which became known as the “Annette Kellerman,” now seen as a pioneering step toward modern swimwear for women.