Medley swimming

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

Individual medley consists of a single swimmer swimming equal distances of four different strokes within one race.

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Stroke Order

Individual Medley consists of four strokes. Usually each stroke has an equal part of the overall distance, i.e. 1/4th of the overall distance is swum in one stroke. The strokes are swum in this order:

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• Butterfly
• Backstroke
• Breaststroke
• Freestyle, with the limitation that freestyle means any style other than backstroke, breaststroke or butterfly.

Competitions

There are a number of competitions swum regularly in individual medley, by both men and women. The competitions are limited in that every distance must consist of at least 4 lengths (100 yds. or m.) or a multiple of 4 lengths (200, 400, or 800 yds. or m.), so that no stroke must change mid-length. Regardless of the length of the individual medley, each stroke comprises1/4th of the overall distance.

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• 100m individual Medley: Swum on the short 25m lane only. This is not an Olympic competition.
• 200m individual Medley: Swum on both the short 25m lane and the long 50m lane. This was an Olympic competition once in the 1968 Summer Olympics, Mexico City, Mexico. After that, the event was not swum on Olympic games until the 1984 Summer Olympics, Los Angeles, United States. The event has been swum ever since.
• 400m individual Medley: Swum on both the short 25m lane and the long 50m lane. This has been an Olympic competition since the 1964 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, Japan

Technique

The technique for individual medley events does not differ much from the technique for the separate events for the four strokes. The only main difference is the technique needed at the change from one stroke to the next stroke. Each section has to be completed as described by the rules of this section.

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The butterfly section has to be ended with both hands touching the wall at the same time, but has to leave the wall on the back for backstroke. Most swimmers do this by pulling the knees underneath of their body after touching the wall with both hands, and then rolling backwards on their back. During the roll the arms are not stretched, but rather hold close to the body with the hands a few centimeters in front of the chest. This reduces the rotational moment and allows for a faster turn. At the end of the backwards roll the swimmer sinks under water and extends the arms forward. The swimmer then pushes off the wall with both legs and starts the regular underwater phase of backstroke, usually a butterfly kick for 15m before surfacing and resuming normal backstroke.

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The backstroke section has to be ended with touching the wall while lying on the back. For the subsequent breaststroke the swimmer has to leave the wall on the breast. Most swimmers prefer to do a backwards roll by pulling the knees close to the body and pushing with the hand upwards against the wall to achieve rotational movement. After a 180 degree turn, the swimmer is under water on his breast and extends the hands forward before pushing off the wall with both legs. The swimmer continues with the regular breaststroke, consisting of a sliding phase, a underwater pull-down, and another sliding phase before surfacing and resuming the normal breaststroke.

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The breaststroke section has to be ended with both hands touching the wall at the same time while on the breast. A normal breaststroke turn is usually used to turn and push off the wall. After leaving the wall the freestyle underwater phase is initiated, followed by regular freestyle on the surface after 15m or less. For medley events, freestyle means any style other than backstroke, breaststroke or butterfly.

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