There are four strokes used in Olympic competition: Freestyle (essentially, front crawl), Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly. All four strokes feature in the Individual Medley and Medley Relay events.

Olympic races are conducted over a variety of distances, from 50m (one length of the pool) all the way up to 1500m. All the pool events begin with heats, with the best swimmers from the qualifying rounds eventually racing for gold in the final.
Olympic Swimming, past and present

At the first few modern Olympic Games, Swimming events were held in open water. At Paris in 1900, for instance, they took place in the River Seine. However, the rules were formalised in 1908, when the London Games staged the first Olympic Swimming competition to be held in a pool.

Other than the Marathon Swimming 10km event, held in the Serpentine within Hyde Park, the Swimming competition will take place in the dazzling Aquatics Centre, built in the Olympic Park especially for London 2012.

Jargon buster

Long course: A 50m pool of the type used in Olympic competition, as opposed to a short course measuring 25m.
Medley: A combination event in which a swimmer or team swims separate legs of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
Negative split: When an athlete swims the second half of a race faster than the first half.
Open turn: A type of turn for which swimmers must touch the end of the pool with their hands.
Tumble turn: An underwater roll at the end of a lap, which allows swimmers to push off from the end of the pool with their feet

The best place to start swimming is at your local pool. You can search for the one closest to you at Active Places. If you want to know more about clubs, facilities and coaching schemes in your area, contact British Swimming, Scottish Swimming, Swim Wales or Swim Ulster. The International Swimming Federation has information on international competition, while the Swimfit website can offer advice on swimming fitness programmes.

The stateside portion of the regular season will start April 4 in Miami, Florida with the opening of the new Miami ballpark, as the newly renamed Miami Marlins host the defending world champion St. Louis Cardinals. The season is scheduled to end on Wednesday, October 3. The entire master schedule was released on September 14, 2011.

The season will mark the last for the Houston Astros as a member of the National League. Following the sale to new owner Jim Crane, the Astros agreed to move to the American League effective in the 2013 season, and will be assigned to the West Division, joining their in-state rivals, the Texas Rangers. In addition, an expanded postseason could be in place beginning this season, with the addition of another wild card team in each league.

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game’s 83rd edition will be held on July 10 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. The winning league will earn home field advantage for the 2012 World Series, beginning on October 24 and scheduled to end no later than November 1. The Civil Rights Game will be held at Turner Field in Atlanta, Georgia.