History
Backstroke has been around since the beginning of swimming. It was created off of freestyle or front crawl. The major alteration made to develop backstroke was to swim the stroke completely on your back. Originally the stroke was swam with straight arms and included a straight arm recovery under the water, but developed into a bent arm recovery. (Evolution of Backstroke)
Backstroke was first contested in the Olympics in 1900 as the 200m race for men. However in 1908, the 200m backstroke was swaped for the 100m race and it remained that way until the 200m race was reintroduced in 1964. On the women’s side, the 100m race was introduced in the 1924 Olympics and the 200m was introduced in the 1968 Olympics. 
Modern Backstroke
The biggest area of change within backstroke since the 1900 is the advancements made to the start. Backstroke is the only stroke where the swimmers start the race in the water. At the beginning the swimmers would grab onto the edge of the pool, but as technology advances, now there are handles that hang off the blocks. This allows the swimmers to pull themselves out of the water, so they can have a faster and more powerful start.
How to Swim Backstroke
Famous Backstrokers
