Why is freestyle an Olympic swimming stroke?

For the medley only the last swimmer swims crawl stroke. If the first swimmer, a backstroker, swam front crawl their entire relay team would be disqualified. The same goes for everyone except the freestyler. For the other things… yes. read more

Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competitions, with distances beginning with 50 meters (50 yards) and reaching 1500 meters (1650 yards), also known as the mile. read more