Swimming at the 1904 Summer Olympics

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Swimming at the 1904 Summer Olympics took place in Forest Park, St. Louis, from September 4 to 6. Nine swimming events were held with 32 swimmers from five nations. The races were held in a man-made lake used for coast guard life-saving demonstrations, and distances were measured in yards—the only time Olympic swimming used yards. The program introduced a 50-yard sprint, the 100-yard event returned after not being held in 1900, and the longer races were shortened to 440 yards (400 m) and 1 mile (1,600 m). The 200-metre backstroke was shortened to 100 yards, and a 4×50-yard freestyle relay replaced the team event. The obstacle course and underwater swimming were dropped, while breaststroke made its Olympic debut.