How many competitive swimmers are there in the world

The landmarks for diversity in a core Olympic sport with the second most medal events after track and field have come comparatively recently. The first Black swimmer to win an individual Olympic medal was Curacao-born Enith Brigitha for the Netherlands in while the first to win gold was Suriname's Anthony Nesty in Nesty beat Biondi by one hundredth of a second in that m butterfly final in Seoul.

It took until for Maritza Correia to become the first Black female swimmer to win an Olympic medal for the United States. Compatriot Cullen Jones became the first Black male swimmer to hold a world record in swimming in , while Simone Manuel in was the first African-American woman to win Olympic swimming gold. Manuel, who will be swimming in Tokyo, said in Rio she had felt the weight of history on her shoulders and paid tribute to those who had gone before.

The oldest swimmer is years old??????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is super duper crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! Left Sidebar. John Mullen 10 March , am. Photo Courtesy: Maria Dobysheva. Photo Courtesy: Donnie Ray Jones.

Tracy Hopkins Tirelli. Fred Dever, people thought I was crazy on 6. Remi Neeno. Banah-Jena Fakhoury Sandy Zureik. Alex Lastra. Gigi Flower. Sigfrido Garcia.

Julian Garcia Gabriela Barragan. Amanda Ong. Marissa Hon no. Jennifer Mason Zoeller. Britt Jackson. Anthony Melero. Juthatip Thin. Somewhere Michael Phelps is cheering! The Olympic icon's goal has always been to grow the sport.

Image courtesy of USpresswire. September 10th, National , News , Press Releases. To date, USA Swimming has a combined membership of , athlete and non-athlete members. Membership numbers for the year, which ran from Sept. This is the largest single-year spike in USA Swimming history. But, is swimming a popular sport in the world?

Is competitive swimming something people enjoy watching, and if yes, in which parts? Studies, surveys, and data, in general, have shown that swimming is a sport which always reaches the list of top 20 sports for each country tested. On the other hand, it has never gone above rank number 8. While it is immensely popular during the Olympic Games, its popularity fails to impress during the regular season. There are some countries which value swimming more, like Australia, for example, having around registered swimming professionals.

The United States is passionate about swimming, as well, as are many countries in Europe.