Swimming is not just about hearing buzzwords like the Olympics, Michael Phelps, 200 IM, flip turns and tight suits.

Phelps is typically the first name to come to mind in regards to swimming and although his accomplishments are great, he is not the only athlete worth mentioning in the conversation of important swimmers.

200 IM sounds good, but there is so much to unpack such as the number of laps, what strokes are in an IM or simply what IM stands for.

Flip turns seem simpler than they are, and there is an actual reason why swimmers wear tight suits. There is so much more to swimming than initial appearances.

Swimming should gain more fame and love in this country. We hear of the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and soccer all the time as they have been the top trending sports for a long time.

Swimming gained its fame in the 2000s because of older generations realizing how therapeutic it is and Phelps’ accolades during the Olympics.

“Studies, surveys, and data, in general, have shown that swimming is a sport which always reaches the list of top 20 sports for each country tested. On the other hand, it has never gone above rank number 8. While it is immensely popular during the Olympic Games, its popularity fails to impress during the regular season,” according to the Speedo league website.

Phelps, who retired, has 28 gold medals. Phelps is popular for swimming in butterfly, IMs and freestyle. He is essentially the Michael Jordan of swimming.

However, there are famous swimmers that do not harness the attention they should get from swimming.

Adam Peaty from England is known to be one of the fastest swimmers in breaststroke.

Nathan Adrian is known for being one of the fastest 50-meter freestylers and is a gold medalist.

Caeleb Dressel is the swimmer who beat Phelps’ record in the 100-meter butterfly.

Most pools in the Olympics measure at 50 meters in length, but in high schools or some club pools they can be 25 meters.

Individual Medleys, or IM, are events where a swimmer swims all four strokes or styles that exist in competitive swimming.

Freestyle is the most common, along with the breaststroke where people swim like a frog, but with each stroke their head dives into the water.

There is also the butterfly, which is where swimmers move their arms like a butterfly with full rotated arms, while also doing dolphin kicks.

Finally, there is the backstroke, which is the second-most popular stroke and where the swimmer would swim on their back, maintaining the same kicking seen in freestyle.

Due to its difficulty, swimmers who can complete IM perfectly proves their ability to swim professionally.

Flip turns are a big part of swimming and if a swimmer swims more than 25 meters in a regular pool, or 50 meters in Olympic pools, it is because they are doing more than one lap.

Flip turns are not just flips in the water, they are used when the swimmer must transition to the next lap. Flip turns are more effective and powerful than just turning by touching the wall. They are common in freestyle and backstroke.

The flip turn consists of doing a front flip in the water but once the swimmer does 75% of a flip, they turn their body to face the water and have their legs in a 90 degree or lower angle to have them push off the wall.

This makes their split times faster. Breaststroke and butterfly also have powerful turns.

One may think jerseys and basketball shorts are cool, but wait till they put on a jammer or a speedo.

Some people think swim trunks are cooler, but if someone wants to go to a pool party or a beach and swim like a swimmer while looking fast doing it, then jammers and speedos are the way to go.

Swim trunks create drag and make people slower. Some think swim trunks are the only ones with designs, while speedos and jammers are just one color, but that is not the case.

Speedos and jammers were the original suits when it came to swimming, and they are still popular in Europe.

Many sports media channels do not showcase swimming on their platforms. Even though we might not have the mainstream media, there are ways where people can still keep up with swimming, such as following swimming pages on Instagram, Reddit, YouTube and other social media platforms.

Swimming deserves more love and should be in the top five of most followed sports in America.