A BRIEF HISTORY

People have been swimming on their backs at least since the days of classical Greece and Rome. However, it was not until the twentieth century that the back crawl was invented. Before that the technique most likely used was what we now would call the elementary backstroke—essentially an inverted breaststroke. In 1794, for example, the Italian writer Oronzio de Bernardi described a form of elementary backstroke in his volume on the art of swimming. In London three quarters of a century later, the marquis Bibbero was reported to have used a similar method to swim a mile in thirty-nine and a half minutes.

The modern backstroke, or back crawl, was unveiled by an American swimmer, Harry Hebner, at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. Hebner used his revolutionary technique to carve more than three seconds off the Olympic record and defeat his favored German rivals. Olympic officials were aghast at Hebner’s unconventional style and wanted to disqualify him. But U.S. officials intervened, correctly pointing out that the rules required only that a swimmer remain on his back throughout the race. The U.S. view prevailed, Hebner’s victory was preserved, and the modern backstroke was born. The new technique was so much faster and more efficient than the older style that within a few years it had replaced it completely.

The backstroke changed very little over the next seventy years, although a number of improvements in technique were made. In the early 1980s, however, several American collegiate swimmers began experimenting with a radically new style—at least for the first twenty yards of their race. The technique, introduced by world champion Jesse Vassallo, was inspired by studies of the way dolphins swim and by the efficiency of the dolphin kick in the butterfly.

At the start of a race, a swimmer would streamline his body and swim underwater for as long as he could, using a reverse dolphin kick. He would not use his arms at all. After about twenty yards he would pop to the surface, take three or four strokes, make the turn, then swim the rest of the race using the back crawl. Invariably, even in top competition, these swimmers would jump out to a quick lead on the first lap. And just as invariably, they would tire in the later stages of the race, go into oxygen debt, and fall behind.

It was not until 1987 that a swimmer perfected the underwater dolphin technique. David Berkoff, a junior at Harvard University, used it to win the national collegiate title in the 100-yard backstroke, smashing the national record by almost a full second. The exciting innovation became known as the Berkoff blastoff.

In 1988 Berkoff broke the world record for 100 meters twice before the Olympics, swimming the first thirty-five or forty meters of his race underwater. At Seoul, he lowered the mark a third time in leading off the U.S. medley relay team. Ironically, however, Berkoff finished second in the 100-meter race itself. Getting off to a slow start, he was unable to overcome the early lead of Japan’s Daichi Suzuki, who himself was using the Berkoff blastoff.

After the Olympics officials tried to outlaw the new technique. In 1991 a rule change limited the distance that could be swum underwater to the first fifteen meters of each lap.

Despite Berkoff’s revolutionary innovation, which many competitive swimmers now use for the beginning of their race, the backstroke itself remains unchanged. People may wish to emulate the grace and efficiency of dolphins. But short of equipping ourselves with gill slits through bioengineering, we will never be able to match the ability of our aquatic cousins to swim for several minutes without needing to breathe. For us the backstroke will remain a surface stroke.