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BREASTSTROKE AND BUTTERFLY
The first stroke to evolve was breaststroke, and until the 1950's, it was the only one that required a certain style in competition. However, the fact that the recovery of both arms and legs was done underwater made the stroke rather slow. To try and solve this problem, in 1934 David Armbruster, a coach at the University of Iowa, experimented with a double overarm recovery out of the water. This granted more speed, but required much more strength and training. In 1935, Jack Sieg, who was being coached by Armbruster at the time, developed a style of swimming face down and kicking his legs together like a dolphin's tail. Armbruster and Sieg later combined and coordinated these actions into a stroke called "butterfly breaststroke". However, it wasn't officially made a separate stroke until 1953.
FREESTYLE
Australian swimmer Richard Cavill observed natives of the Solomon Islands using and up and down kick with an alternating overarm stroke. Using this at the 1902 International Championships, he set a record of 58.4 for 100 yards. The stroke was named the Australian Crawl (although it is usually just called 'freestyle' in competition). Later, the 1956 Australian men's team introduced the body roll that decreases resistance from water to the stroke.
BACKSTROKE
Up until the early 1900's, swimming was not competed on the back. Since breaststroke was, at the time, the stroke of choice, backstroke was swam like an upside down breaststroke. However, when freestyle became popular, people tried the overarm alternating style on the back, combined with a flutter kick. In 1912, backstroke became an official stroke.
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