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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2494 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 9, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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That's basically why the butterfly stroke exists. A handful of swimmers (none Japanese, as far as I can recall) in the 1930s independently figured out the dolphin kick as an improvement to the breaststroke, then someone combined it with the above-water recovery. This all technically fit within the official definitions of a breaststroke at the time and completely broke the meta of the sport. Within a couple years, the classic breastroke was completely obsolete and officials had to make butterfly its own separate event in order to save it.

Oh right, that was it! In '04 Kosuke Kitajima started adding butterfly kicks back into the breaststroke pull out, causing some controversy and rule changes.

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