Know Olympic Swimmers: How do backstroke swimmers know when to turn?

Swimming is one of the most closely followed events in the Olympics. In case of events using pre-determined strokes, one of the hardest is undoubtedly the backstroke event. The backstroke race requires Olympic swimmers to lie on their backs and use their arms to slide across the water's surface. Tokyo Olympics 2020 features four backstroke events -- 100m and 200m for men and women. While backstroke helps ease breathing, its biggest disadvantage is that swimmers are unable to see where they are going. So how do backstroke swimmers know when to turn? 

How do backstroke swimmers know when to turn?

With backstrokes, it is difficult for the swimmer to see when they are approaching the wall. Several markers are given to swimmers alongside the lanes, the most common being flags. During a backstroke event, there are flags suspended over the pool to help the swimmer navigate. Sometimes markers are placed on the bottom of the pool for the same purpose. 

While these indicators do help, several Olympic swimmers after years of swimming are just aware of how far-off the wall they are. Most competitive swimmers know many strokes are needed after the final signal flag. Turning well in swimming is one of the hardest things to achieve. In some cases, flags above the pool indicate that there are 5 meters until the wall. A swimmer then has to judge how many strokes (rotation of an arm) would it take for him to cover that distance before he flipped. 

Swimmers also have the opportunity of turning their head to the side to check the distance, however, this has the potential to slow them down. Some swimmers tend to count their strokes in hopes of a flawless turn. However, backstrokes are especially hard since swimmers do have the potential to misjudge a stroke or take an extra stroke which may be the difference between winning or losing. 

In Tokyo Olympics 2020, the US is dominating all major swimming events and has managed to add to their impressive first-day haul of 6 swimming medals. So far, United States has won 12 medals in swimming including 3 Gold, and is followed by Australia with 7 and the UK and Canada tied with 3 medals each.