Medley swimming

Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle (usually front crawl), 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 a single swimmer swimming equal distances of the four strokes within one race.

Individual medley consists of four strokes, with each stroke accounting for a quarter of the race in the following order:

A number of competitions in the individual medley are regularly contested, by both men and women. The competitions are limited in that every distance must consist of either four lengths of the pool (100-yard or -meter) or a multiple of four lengths (200- or 400-yard/- meter), so that no stroke must change mid-length. Regardless of the length of the individual medley, each stroke comprises a quarter of the overall distance.

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

The transitions are as follows:

When transitioning from Butterfly to Backstroke, swimmers must abide by World Aquatics rules and regulations in regards to turns. They are listed as follows:

For all the transitions, the swimmer may conduct their underwater phase for up to 15m, where then swimmers will have to resurface and continue swimming with proper technique.