Can people swim backwards?

You've never seen anyone do backstroke?

not upside down. Backstroke is upside down.

I mean swim backwards, as in feet first. You go the direction your feet are in, instead of your head. Is that possible?

Running "backwards" is just running turned around. They are facing backwards but still moving forward. A swimmer doing the back stroke is also facing backwards and moving forward.

Dang dude, you need to take that guy’s username. You’re the real “deep thinking thinker”

I've always wondered what the backwards WRs would be if they became official events like in the Olympics or something. How would Bekele do? Who is the backwards GOAT at the moment? Is there a backwards Bekele?

It's why I devalue Olympic swimmers and their medals. Runners only run 100m 1 way, where as swimmers can win gold in up to 4 ways. If we added backwards running, skipping and one leg hopping to each distance and then allow runners to participate in as many events as they want, the very best runners would win alot. Bolt would be a 20 time individual Olympic gold Medalist.

No, you are a buffoon for having this take. A backstroker is moving in the same direction as a freestyler (in the direction that the top of their head is facing). Their orientation is rotated around their axis of movement, which doesn't change the direction of movement.

This is in contrast with a backwards runner or a car going in reverse, where movement is in the opposite direction of the of what is typical given their orientation. Ergo, proper backwards swimming requires movement in the direction of the feet.

But this is the wrong question anyway. I'm much more interested in the potential sideways swimming and running world records. I bet prime bekele could still go sub 13 in a sideways 5k.

This is a good point. By definition, the direction you're moving is always forwards regardless of which way your body is oriented.

I'd say that moving towards your destination = moving forwards while moving away from your destination = moving backwards. So you're swimming backwards if you are moving away from the finish line even if you are doing the front crawl, while you are moving forwards if you are swimming toward the finish line regardless of your body's orientation.

Of course you can, just not that fast. You cull water with your palms and push it forward and try to do something similar with your feet or just paddle them to help stay horizontal. There are other possible positions that you would call swimming backwards, all very inefficient not just because we are not used to it but because our bodies (as well as most fishes’) are optimized to move forward.

here ya go:

Love that the video shows the reverse of him swimming backwards so that you see that he is indeed doing each stroke correctly backwards.

thank you, but how do I know that didn't just run the video in reverse?

I guess he would have had trouble leaping out of the water onto the platform