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Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Sports & Disciplines

Freestyle

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/ˈfristaɪl/nounCommon term

In sports & fitness, freestyle means: A swimming event in which any stroke may be used, in practice almost always front crawl; the word also names styles in wrestling, skiing and other sports.

In Turkish: serbest stil, serbest

How it is used

Used by swimmers, coaches and commentators: the 100m freestyle, the freestyle relay. Many swimmers simply use freestyle to mean front crawl. In wrestling, freestyle is one of the two Olympic styles, alongside Greco-Roman.

Example sentences

  1. She won gold in the 200 metres freestyle.

  2. We'll do ten lengths of freestyle to warm up.

Common collocations

  • 100m freestyle
  • freestyle relay
  • freestyle wrestling
  • swim freestyle
  • triathlonAn endurance race in which athletes swim, cycle and then run, one straight after the other, over set distances.
  • enduranceThe ability to keep up physical effort for a long time without tiring, important in sports like running, cycling, swimming and rowing.
  • personal bestThe best time, distance, weight or score an athlete has ever achieved in a particular event or exercise; often shortened to PB or PR.
  • athleteA person who trains for and takes part in sport, especially at a competitive level; in British English it can also mean a track and field competitor.

More terms: Sports & Disciplines

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