Swim Strokes

Medley is a combination of four different swimming styles into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as a medley relay. Individual medley consists of four strokes. Usually each stroke has an equal part of the overall distance, i.e. 1/4 of the overall distance is swum in one stroke. The strokes are swum in this order:

1. Butterfly
2. Backstroke
3. Breaststroke
4. Freestyle, with the limitation that freestyle means any competitive stroke (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, or the front crawl). Most swimmers use the front crawl.

A triathlon is a multi-sport endurance event consisting of swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall course completion time, including timed "transitions" between the individual swim, bike, and run components.

Triathlon races vary in distance. According to the International Triathlon Union, and USA Triathlon, the main international race distances are Sprint distance (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run), Intermediate distance, commonly referred to as "Olympic distance" (1.5 km swim, 40 km ride, 10 km run), the Long Course (1.9 km swim, 90 km ride, 21.1 km run, such as the Half Ironman), and Ultra Distance (3.8 km swim, 180 km ride, and a marathon: 42.2 km run); the most popular branded Ultra Distance is the Ironman triathlon.

Less than half of USMS members compete in meets, but for many who do, competition is the heart and soul of USMS. There are more than 500 local and regional competitions for adult swimmers around the country each year. These include pool meets, postal meets, and open water swims. Two national championship meets in pools are held each year and several long distance championship events are held as well. Times from all pool meets are collected and compiled to determine the USMS Top Ten, the ten fastest times in the nation in pool meets sanctioned or recognized by USMS during the current season organized by age group, by sex, and by course. The Top Ten is available on the web and is also published as booklets three times annually, once for each course. The registered USMS swimmer with the fastest time in the Top Ten in each age group, event, and course plus the age group winners of long distance events are named as All-Americans. The person in each age group who earns the most All-American positions is named to the All-Star team. USMS Records are also maintained and available on the web. Lots of this information together with stories and photographs of top swimmers is available in the USMS Archives.