Swimming

What does it mean when you dream about swimming?

Bodies of water are natural symbols of both the unconscious and the emotions. Dreaming about swimming can thus be related to the emotions or to an exploration of one’s unconscious (a natural dream image for someone undergoing therapy). Also, because we spend the first nine months of our lives in a liquid environment, swimming is also a symbol of birth or rebirth.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

Swimming

(dreams)

If you are swimming in your dream, you are most likely swimming through the “ocean” of your unconscious and through the “sea” of your emotions. The ease with which you are doing this activity will give you clues as to how well you are navigating through those very complex parts of yourself. Are you out of your depth or winning a race?

Bedside Dream Dictionary by Silvana Amar Copyright © 2007 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Swimming

 

the locomotion of animals in an aquatic environment. Different animals are variously adapted for swimming. Aquatic and semiaquatic animals, which spend their entire life or the greater part of their life in water, swim actively or passively. Terrestrial animals swim only actively, when it is necessary to overcome a water barrier.

Actively swimming animals move by means of various paddling organs. Such organs include the cilia or flagella of many protozoans, worms, and larvae; the ciliated plates of ctenophores; the antennae and thoracic and abdominal legs of crustaceans; and the limbs of turtles, swimming birds, and such mammals as pinnipeds, otters, and beavers. Locomotion by means of wavelike flexing of the body or unpaired fins characterizes whales, most fishes, caudate amphibians, snakes, nemertines, leeches, appendicularians, and the larvae of ascidians and amphibians. The body flexes either horizontally or vertically. Movement by reactive means is achieved in some animals by expulsion of water from some part of the body. The animal moves in the direction opposite to that of the water expelled. Medusae, cephalopod mollusks, salps, Pyrosomatidae, and the larvae of some insects swim in this fashion.

Animals capable only of passive swimming, that is, those that are carried along by the currents, have adaptations to keep the body suspended. Such adaptations include the vacuoles in the external protoplasmic layer in radiolarians and the air bubbles in colonies of siphonophores.

Sharks, mackerel, and tuna swim at speeds of 20 km/hr and greater. Flying fishes, before they enter the air, move at a speed approaching 65 km/hr. The swordfish reaches a speed of 130 km/hr. The hydrostatic orientation of fishes and the reflex regulation of their movements are usually functions of the swim bladder. (See BIOMECHANICS and MOVEMENT.)

REFERENCE

Granit, R. Osnovy reguliatsii dvizhenii. Moscow, 1973. (Translated from English.)

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Swimming

 

a sport that includes competitive swimming, various practical swimming, skin diving, and synchronized (artistic) swimming. Swimming may also be part of a medical treatment program, a form of recreation, or a component of various sports.

Swimming meets include events in which competitors swim from 100 to 1,500 m. The three strokes used are the crawl, breast stroke, and butterfly (dolphin butterfly). Practical swimming includes diving for length and depth, lifesaving, and overcoming water obstacles. In synchronized swimming, swimmers perform acrobatics in the water and on land to music; the swimmers may perform alone, in pairs, or in groups. Swimming is part of various games played in the water.

Swimming is fundamental to water polo and a component of the modern pentathalon and sailors’ combined events in aquatic sports. It is an essential part of the training of athletes engaged in motorboating, sailing, and diving.

Although swimming has been known to man since the most ancient times, it became a sport only at the turn of the 16th century. One of the first swimming meets was held in Venice in 1515. In 1538 the Dane N. Winman published the first swimming manual. The first swimming schools were organized in the second half of the 18th century and in the early 19th in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and France. The first swimming pools were constructed in the mid-19th century. The sport of swimming became especially popular in the late 19th century. In

Table 1. USSR and world swimming records1
Distance (m)	Stroke, event	World					USSR
		Time2	Holder	Country		Year	Time2	Holder	City	Year
1Individual records for Olympic distances 2In minutes and seconds 3German Democratic Republic
					Men
100 . . . . .	Freestyle	51.22	M. Spitz	USA		1972	51.77	V. V. Bure	Moscow	1972
200 . . . . . . .	Freestyle	1:52.78	M. Spitz	USA		1972	1:54.81	V. V. Bure	Moscow	1973
400 . . . . . . .	Freestyle	3:58.18	R. DeMont	USA		1973	4:06.3	V. V. Bure	Moscow	1973
1,500 . . . . . .	Freestyle	15:31.85	S. Holland	Australia		1973	16:12.3	V. O. Parinov	Ashkhabad	1973
100 . . .	Breast stroke	1:04.02	J. Mencken	USA		1973	1:04.61	M. G. Khriukin	Voronezh	1973
200 . . . . . . .	Breast strok e	2:19.28	D. Wilkie	Great Britain		1973	2:23.47	M. G. Khriukin	Voronezh	1973
100 . . .	Butterfly	54.27	M. Spitz	USA		1973	57.8	V. K. Nemshilov	Sochi	1969
200 . . . . . . .	Butterfly	2:00.70	M. Spitz	USA		1972	2:06.8	V. M. Sharygin	Moscow	1972
100 . . .	Backstroke	56.30	R. Matthes	GDR3		1972	59.1	I. A. Grivennikov	Moscow	1972
200 . . . . . . .	Backstroke	2:01.87	R. Matthes	GDR		1973	2:11.3	L. V. Dobroskokin	Volgograd	1971
200 . . . . . . .	Medley	2:07.17	G. Larsson	Sweden		1972	2:10.86	S. V. Zakharov	Astrakhan	1973
400 . . . . . . .	Medley	4:30.81	G. Hall	USA		1972	4:37.05	S. V. Zakharov	Astrakhan	1973
					Women
100 . . .	Freestyle	57.54	K. Ender	GDR		1973	1:00.8	T. A. Shelofastova	Leningrad	1973
200 . . . . . . .	Freestyle	2:03.56	S. Gould	Australia		1972	2:10.4	T. A. Shelofastova	Leningrad	1973
400 . . . . . . .	Freestyle	4:18.07	K. Rotthammer	USA		1973	4:35.1	T. A. Shelofastova	Leningrad	1973
800 . . . . . . .	Freestyle	8:52.97	N. Calligaris	Italy		1973	9:23.4	E. lu. Burmenskaia	Noril’sk	1972
100 . . . . . . .	Breast stroke	1:13.58	C. Carr	USA		1972	1:14.7	G. N. Prozumenshchikova	Moscow	1971
200 . . . . . . .	Breast stroke	2:38.50	C. Ball	USA		1968	2:40.7	G. N. Prozumenshchikova	Moscow	1970
100 . . . . . . .	Butterfly	1:02.31	K. Ender	GDR		1973	1:06.38	A. L. Meerzon	Leningrad	1973
200 . . . . . . .	Butterfly	2:13.76	R. Kother	GDR		1973	2:21.27	N. V. Popova	Kharkov	1973
100 . . .	Backstroke	1:04.99	U. Richter	GDR		1973	1:06.97	T. Sh. Lekveishvili	Tbilisi	1972
200 . . . . . . .	Backstroke	2:19.19	M. Belote	USA		1972	2:26.54	l. V. Golovanova	Alma-Ata	1973
200 . . . . . . .	Medley	2:20.51	A. Huebner	GDR		1973	2:26.9	N. L. Petrova	Moscow	1972
400 . . . . . . .	Medley	4:57.51	G. Wegner	GDR		1973	5:13.4	N. L. Petrova	Moscow	1972

1890 the first European swimming championships were held, and since 1896 swimming has been included in the Olympics. In 1908 the International Amateur Swimming Federation (FINA) was organized; it included 96 national federations in 1973. The European Swimming League (LEN) was formed in 1924.

Swimming was not a widespread sport in prerevolutionary Russia. In the early 20th century there were seven primitive indoor swimming pools and only 1,500 persons were engaged in the sport. Because training sessions were conducted primarily in open water during the summer, results were poor. The first Russian swimming championships were held in Kiev in 1913, and the first swimming competitions in the USSR were held in Moscow in 1918. In Petrograd in 1920, V. N. Peskov organized the Dolphin Sports Society, which had an outdoor pool. During the 1920’s several swimming schools were opened in Moscow, and in 1921 the first all-Russian swimming championships were held in the Moskva River. Swimming competitions were included in the USSR Spartakiads in 1928, with USSR championship competitions held on a regular basis thereafter.

The first indoor swimming pools were opened in Leningrad in 1927 and in Moscow in 1930 and 1931. The pools allowed athletes to train throughout the year and helped prepare swimmers who surpassed the European and world records of the time. Noted swimmers of the period include L. K. Meshkov, S. P. Boichenko, V. V. Ushakov, A. M. Shumin, V. F. Kitaev, K. I. Aleshina, and M. V. Sokolova. Mass interest in swimming was linked to the implementation of universal military training, of which swimming was an important part. Swimming was made a compulsory part of the Ready for Labor and Defense of the USSR complex at all stages in 1931 and 1932, and this too contributed to the popularization of the sport. It became a basic discipline at institutes and technicums of physical culture and in the physical-education departments of higher educational institutions of pedagogy.

In the late 1940’s construction began on modern pools for use in winter and summer. In 1973 there were more than 1,000 pools, which were used by more than 2 million persons.

Soviet swimmers have participated regularly in international competitions since the USSR swimming section joined FINA in 1947 (becoming the All-Union Federation in 1959) and LEN in 1949. Soviet swimmers have taken part in the Olympics since 1952 and in European championships since 1954. The greatest successes have been achieved by Olympic champion G. N. Prozumenshchikova and by various Olympic and European champions, including Kh. Kh. Iunichev, V. V. Konoplev, V. N. Nikitin, G. G. Androsov, L. N. Kolesnikov, V. I. Sorokin, V. V. Kuz’min, G. la. Prokopenko, S. V. Babanina, V. I. Kosinskii, V. G. Mazanov, S. V. Belits-Geiman, N. I. Pankin, I. A. Grivennikov, I. I. Pozdniakova, and V. V. Bure. Important contributions to methods of instruction, coaching, and modern swimming technique have been made by Honored Coaches of the USSR E. L. Alekseenko, V. V. Bure, T. V. Drobinskaia, L. A. Ioakimidi, V. N. Kashutina, N. M. Nesterova, and O. V. Kharlamova. Educators who have made fundamental contributions in these areas include S. M. Vaitsekhovskii, A. A. Van’kov, I. V. Vrzhesnevskii, L. V. Gerkan, V. F. Kitaev, M. Ia. Nabatnikova, B. N. Nikitskii, V. A. Parfenov, Z. P. Firsov, G. P. Chernov, and A. S. Chikin.

In 1973 the first world swimming championships were held in Belgrade, with the best team performances turned in by swimmers from the USA, the German Democratic Republic, Australia, and the USSR. See Table 1 for USSR and world records.

REFERENCES

Plavanie. [Textbook.] Moscow, 1965.
Butovich, N. A., and V. I. Chudovskii. Krol’—bystreishii sposob plavaniia. Moscow, 1968.
Iniasevskii, K. A. Trenirovka plovtsov vysokogo klassa. Moscow, 1970.
Counsilman, J. Nauka o plavanii. Moscow, 1972. (Translated from English.)
Vasil’ev, V., and B. Nikitskii. Obuchenie deteiplavaniiu. Moscow, 1973.

N. A. BUTOVICH

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.