I'm curious why the order of IM is as it is--butterfly, back, ***, then free? It doesn't seem to be the order of speed.
Also, has there been any medalist in world competitions whose "freestyle" was not front crawl (not necessarily in a medley, but maybe in just "Freestyle" competition)?
Don't the rules for IM say the fourth leg must be a stroke other than the three previous legs? So effectively you're limited to front crawl. I suppose you could do something like sidestroke, but you couldn't use the other three competitve strokes. And, no, you can't do two-armed backstroke because that's legal backstroke.
Here's the text of the rule that pertains to freestyle in IM events:
101.5.2 Stroke—In an event designated freestyle, the swimmer may swim any style, except that in a medley relay or individual medley event, freestyle means any style other than butterfly, breaststroke or backstroke
So I suppose in a USA Swimming meet you could choose to do the freestyle leg as butterfrog, but not in USMS!
Don't the rules for IM say the fourth leg must be a stroke other than the three previous legs? So effectively you're limited to front crawl. I suppose you could do something like sidestroke, but you couldn't use the other three competitve strokes. And, no, you can't do two-armed backstroke because that's legal backstroke.
Here's the text of the rule that pertains to freestyle in IM events:
101.5.2 Stroke—In an event designated freestyle, the swimmer may swim any style, except that in a medley relay or individual medley event, freestyle means any style other than butterfly, breaststroke or backstroke
So I suppose in a USA Swimming meet you could choose to do the freestyle leg as butterfrog, but not in USMS!
