5 October 2017

A num­ber of FINA rule changes came into force on 2 Octo­ber 2017, some of which are changes to stroke require­ments, includ­ing the pro­hi­bi­tion of under­wa­ter kick­ing on one’s side dur­ing Butterfly.

We’ve list­ed the most notable updates, along with the PDF issued by Offi­cials News, which doc­u­ments all rule changes in full.

2017 – 2021 FINA Swim­ming Rules Update [PDF, 90 KB]

Key extracts from the PDF relat­ed to each stroke are detailed below. New word­ing is shown in bold let­ter­ing and dele­tions by a strikethrough.

Should any­body require any fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion please speak to licensed ref­er­ees David Broome and/​or Walt Taylor.

Breast­stroke

SW 7.1

After the start and after each turn, the swim­mer may take one arm stroke com­plete­ly back to the legs dur­ing which the swim­mer may be sub­merged. At any time pri­or to the first Breast­stroke kick after the start and after each turn a sin­gle but­ter­fly kick is per­mit­ted. The head must break the sur­face of the water before the hands turn inward at the widest part of the sec­ond stroke.

SW 7.4

Dur­ing each com­plete cycle, some part of the swimmer’s head must break the sur­face of the water. The head must break the sur­face of the water before the hands turn inward at the widest part of the sec­ond stroke. All move­ments of the legs shall be simul­ta­ne­ous and on the same hor­i­zon­tal plane with­out alter­nat­ing movement.

But­ter­fly

SW 8.1

From the begin­ning of the first arm stroke after the start and each turn, the body shall be kept on the breast, under­wa­ter kick­ing on the side is allowed. It is not per­mit­ted to roll onto the back at any time, except at the turn after the touch of the wall where it is per­mis­si­ble to turn in any man­ner as long as the body is on the breast when leav­ing the wall.

Med­ley Swimming

SW 9.2(New)

In Freestyle, the swim­mer must be on the breast except when exe­cut­ing a turn. The Swim­mer must return to the breast before any kick or stroke.

SW 9.3

In med­ley relay events, swim­mers will cov­er the four swim­ming strokes in the fol­low­ing order: Back­stroke, Breast­stroke, But­ter­fly and Freestyle. Each of the strokes must cov­er one quar­ter (1/4) of the distance.