Short answers, pulled from the story.
The earliest evidence of recreational swimming dates to Stone Age paintings created approximately 10,000 years ago. Written references appear in texts from 2000 BC including the Iliad and the Bible.
Nikolaus Wynmann published the first complete book on swimming titled Colymbetes in 1538. This Swiss-German professor described the art of swimming as joyful and pleasant to read.
Competitive swimming emerged as a recreational activity in England during the 1830s. The National Swimming Society held regular competitions across six artificial pools built around London by 1837.
Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to swim the English Channel in 1875 using breaststroke technique to cross between England and France in 21 hours and 45 minutes. His feat remained unreplicated for 36 years until T.W. Burgess completed the crossing in 1911.
Women's swimming joined the Olympics in 1912 with the first international women's meet occurring at the 1922 Women's Olympiad. The world swimming association Fédération Internationale de Natation formed in 1908 and later renamed itself World Aquatics on the 1st of December 2022.