The most popular recreation for Americans. Upper middle-class Americans build pools in their yards or belong to expensive country clubs; middle-class Americans will belong to YMCAs or other health clubs and/or go to public community pools that are also frequented, especially in the cities, by members of the lower classes. Swimming is also an important aspect of vacationing at lakes and ponds, as well as at the shore.

Competitive swimming was popular in nineteenth-century Britain, mainly involving a gentlemanly breaststroke. In 1844, two American Indians demonstrated a stroke akin to what would become crawl at a London pool, but observers considered it “un-European.” The stroke was then introduced to California by an Australian who had learned the stroke in the South Sea Islands, and it quickly became established as the major Olympic speed race. The sport’s growing popularity was very much connected with the career of Johnny Weissmuller, who won eight gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games before going on to star in eighteen Hollywood movies as Tarzan.

More recently several Americans have dominated the sport: Donna deVarona, the “Queen of Swimming” in the early 1960s; Mark Spitz, winner of seven gold medals, and Shirley Babashoff, winner of eight medals altogether at the 1972 Olympics; Tracy Caulkins, generally considered one of the greatest all-round swimmers of all time and awarded the title “Swimmer of the Decade” by USA Today in 1990; Matt Biondi, winner of gold medals at three Olympiads (1984–92); and Greg Louganis, acknowledged as the greatest diver of all time.

Recently news reports have suggested that boys have been giving up the sport in large numbers as they reach puberty, partly because they find the newer streamlined swimming trunks too revealing. With so many sports options available at school and home, young boys are selecting those that they think will project the best image. As a result, swim teams have become increasingly populated by girl athletes, some programs becoming 70 percent female. The likelihood of any more Spitzs or Louganis emerging in the United States is slim, but the chances that an American woman may produce similar feats may be increasing with the growing numbers of athletic scholarships at colleges going to women (following Title IX), and in the aftermath of the collapse of support for the military-style training programs of the former Soviet Union and East Germany.

Synchronized swimming, largely associated with women athletes, has experienced tremendous growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Its origins in the 1933 World’s Fair of Chicago, IL, synchronized swimming was popularized during the 1940s in Hollywood’s “water ballets” or “aqua musicals,” identified with “America’s mermaid,” Esther Williams (e.g. Bathing Beauty, 1944; Million Dollar Mermaid, 1952). It continued to develop in the Midwestern collegiate programs as an alternative to speed swimming, though with the appeal of its stunts and physically demanding routines it was not exclusively associated with women.

First adopted as a non-medal sport at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, synchronized swimming was finally introduced as a medal sport at the 1996 Atlanta games (though some medal events have been dropped since), as Americans wanted to showcase American talent and to meet the demand for more women participants in the Olympics.

Since pools were already in place for the other swimming events, synchronized swimming was considered a low-cost, high-entertainment addition to the program.

In the process, synchronized swimming has disrupted gender associations in sports, in ways similar to figure skating. While the sport plays on notions of femininity, witnessed also in the feminizing of cheerleading, it also demands great athleticism, and so is further breaking down the gendered linkages of male with “athletic” and female with “grace” See also: sports and gender.