Freestyle is a category of
swimming competition, defined by the rules of the
International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to only limited restrictions on their
swimming stroke. (In other words, they have great
freedom with respect to their swimming
style.) Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming styles, with distances reaching 1500m or 1650 yards. The stroke used almost universally in freestyle races is the
front crawl, as this style is generally the fastest. For this reason, the term
freestyle is sometimes incorrectly used as a synonym for
front crawl when in fact it means you are mostly free to choose your style hence the word freestyle.