Swimming Medley Stroke Order Interpreter

Which stroke is swum on which leg of a medley — and they are two different orders. An individual medley starts with butterfly and a medley relay starts with backstroke, both from World Aquatics’ own Part Two Articles 9.1 and 9.2.

Last updated 12 Oct 2026

Which stroke on which leg?

Event and leg

EventAn individual medley and a medley relay are swum in DIFFERENT orders, which is the single thing this page exists to say. World Aquatics Part Two Article 9.1 covers the individual medley and Article 9.2 covers the relay.

Leg or quarter1 to 4. Article 10.2.1 has each swimmer “complete the course distance (or, in a relay, their quarter of the total race distance)”, and Articles 9.1 and 9.2 have each of the four strokes swum “for one quarter (1/4) of the total race distance”, so the legs are equal in length by rule.

Backstroke — the second quarter of an individual medley.Example

An individual medley, second quarter

The two orders, side by side

Quoted from World Aquatics Part Two: Article 9.1 gives the individual medley as “Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle” and Article 9.2 gives the medley relay as “Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Freestyle”. Three of the four positions differ, and butterfly moves two places. The reason is the start: a backstroke swimmer starts in the water, which only a relay’s first leg can do, because every later leg must leave from the starting platform under Article 10.4.4. An individual medley swimmer dives onto their front from the block, so butterfly leads.
Leg	Individual medley (Art. 9.1)	Medley relay (Art. 9.2)	Do they agree?
1	Butterfly	Backstroke	no
2	Backstroke	Breaststroke	no
3	Breaststroke	Butterfly	no
4	Freestyle	Freestyle	yes — freestyle anchors both

Medley events and what each leg is

Articles 9.1 and 9.2 require each stroke to be swum “for one quarter (1/4) of the total race distance”, so every medley leg is the total divided by four, by rule rather than by convention. The course column is from World Aquatics’ 2026 points base-times sheet, which lists a 100 m medley and 4×50 m relays under SCM (25m) and has no long-course counterpart for either. A caution on that column: the Part Two text read for this page lists the 25 m championship programme with a 4×100 m medley relay and NO 4×50 m relays, while the base-times sheet published for 2026 carries 4×50 m freestyle and medley relays. The two documents disagree, which is one more reason the edition note below matters.
Event	Course	Distance per leg	Legs
100 m individual medley	25 m only	25 m of each stroke	4
200 m individual medley	both	50 m of each stroke	4
400 m individual medley	both	100 m of each stroke	4
4×50 m medley relay	25 m only	50 m	4
4×100 m medley relay	both	100 m	4
4×100 m mixed medley relay	both	100 m	4, two men and two women

Butterfly first, unless it is a relay, in which case backstroke

This page is about swimming — racing in a pool — whose competition regulations, swimming rules, facilities specifications and points tables are published by World Aquatics, the body that was FINA until it was renamed in 2023. Every figure below that belongs to an edition or a validity period is printed with it, because World Aquatics revises all of them.

One word needs pinning down first. In swimming a stroke is two things: a style — freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, the four World Aquatics names in Part Two Sections 5 to 8 — and one arm cycle of whichever style you are swimming, the sense in “stroke rate”. It is never a shot at a ball; that is golf’s word. Where this page means the arm cycle it says cycle, and where it means the style it names the style.

Here is the whole point of this page in two quotations. World Aquatics Part Two Article 9.1, on the individual medley: the Athlete “must perform the four swimming strokes, each for one quarter (1/4) of the total race distance, in the following order: Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, and Freestyle.” And Article 9.2, on the medley relay: the Athletes “must perform the four swimming strokes … in the following order: Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Freestyle.” Those are not the same order. Three of the four positions differ and butterfly moves two places, from first to third.

The reason is the start, and once you see it the difference stops being arbitrary. A backstroke race starts in the water, with the swimmer holding the wall. Only the first swimmer of a relay can do that, because Article 10.4.4 requires every subsequent swimmer to “commence relay exchanges from the starting platform” and forbids “a running start from the pool deck”. So if a medley relay is going to include backstroke at all, backstroke has to go first. An individual medley swimmer has the opposite constraint: they dive from the block onto their front, so they cannot start with backstroke, and butterfly leads instead. Each order is the only one its start permits.

One restriction applies to the last leg of both and catches people out. Article 9.3 says that “during the Freestyle section, the Athlete’s body must be on the breast, except when executing a turn”, and that kicking is not allowed until the swimmer has returned past the vertical to the breast. A standalone freestyle race may be swum in any style at all — that is what freestyle means — but the freestyle section of a medley may not be swum on the back, because backstroke has already been used. The rule is in the medley section rather than the freestyle section for exactly that reason.

The legs are equal by rule rather than by custom. Both Articles 9.1 and 9.2 specify “one quarter (1/4) of the total race distance” for each stroke, and Article 10.2.1 has every swimmer “complete the course distance (or, in a relay, their quarter of the total race distance)”. So a 400 metre individual medley is 100 metres of each stroke and a 200 metre is 50 metres of each, with no latitude. For a mixed relay, Article 10.4.1 adds that each team “must be comprised of two (2) men and two (2) women” — which fixes the composition and not the arrangement, so which two legs the men swim is a tactical choice, while the stroke order is not a choice at all.

Getting the order wrong is a disqualification rather than a time penalty, and World Aquatics’ own dated infraction card lists the two offences separately: “Incorrect individual medley stroke order SW 9.1” and “Incorrect medley relay stroke order SW 9.3”, under the older rule numbering. The same card lists “Relay team did not swim in the order listed SW 10.15”, which is a different offence again — the team declares its running order in advance under Article 10.4.2 and has to keep to it.

An honest note about the article numbers. The rule text quoted on this page was read in full from a copy of World Aquatics’ Part Two: Swimming Rules, and that copy carries no edition, version or “in force as from” statement anywhere in its text. Its seventeen sections put the facilities rules at Section 15, where the Competition Regulations version June 2025 — which does carry its date, “In force as from 25 June 2025” — numbers Part Two in eighteen sections and puts them at Section 16. The current February 2026 regulations could not be fetched at all. So the wording is quoted as read and the numbers are not promised: check an article number against the edition your competition is run under. The same rules are traceable under the older SW numbering from World Aquatics’ own dated infraction card of 1 March 2023.

For the changeovers between those four legs, the relay takeover and reaction time calculator has the rule and the margin to the hundredth. For the medley distances turned into a pace or a schedule, the swimming pace and speed calculator and the swimming split times calculator do the arithmetic, and the World Aquatics points calculator scores a medley against its own base time — which is published separately for the 200 and the 400, and for the 100 in short course only.

Frequently asked questions

What is the stroke order in an individual medley?

Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle. World Aquatics Part Two Article 9.1 gives it in those words, with each stroke swum for one quarter of the total race distance — so 100 m of each in a 400 m individual medley and 50 m of each in a 200 m.

Is the medley relay order the same as the individual medley order?

No, and this is the thing most people get wrong. Article 9.2 gives the medley relay as backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle. Three of the four positions differ from the individual medley and butterfly moves two places, from first to third. Only freestyle is in the same place, last, in both.

Why does the medley relay start with backstroke?

Because a backstroke race starts in the water, and only a relay’s first swimmer can start that way. Article 10.4.4 requires every later leg to commence from the starting platform and forbids a running start from the deck, so if a medley relay includes backstroke it has to come first. An individual medley swimmer dives onto their front from the block, so butterfly leads instead.

Can the freestyle leg of a medley be swum backstroke?

No. Article 9.3 requires that during the freestyle section of a medley “the Athlete’s body must be on the breast, except when executing a turn”, and that kicking is not allowed until the swimmer has returned past the vertical to the breast. A standalone freestyle race may be swum any way at all; the freestyle section of a medley may not.

How does a mixed medley relay work?

The stroke order is unchanged — Article 9.2 governs every medley relay — and Article 10.4.1 adds that each team “must be comprised of two (2) men and two (2) women”. The rule fixes the composition and not the arrangement, so which two legs the men swim is the team’s decision, and teams do choose differently.

Related calculators

References

World Aquatics. Part Two: Swimming Rules (read 15 Oct 2026 from the copy in Special Olympics’ swimming officials resources; about 150,000 characters, ending at the heading “17.1 APPENDIX 1 – DIAGRAM OF A 50M X 25M SWIMMING POOL (8 LANES)” with no appendix body). Quoted here for Articles 9.1–9.3, 10.2.1, 10.4.1–10.4.7, 10.5, 11.1.4, 11.2.3, 11.2.3.1, 12.1, 12.2 and Section 15. IMPORTANT: THIS COPY CARRIES NO EDITION, VERSION OR “IN FORCE AS FROM” STATEMENT ANYWHERE, and its seventeen sections put the facilities rules at Section 15 where the Competition Regulations version June 2025 puts them at Section 16 and carries an extra section this copy does not have. The article text is quoted as read and the numbers are flagged as edition-dependent.
World Aquatics. Swimming Rule Quick Reference Infraction Sheet 2023-2025, “Version: 1 March 2023”, “In force as from 1 March 2023” (read 15 Oct 2026 from resources.fina.org; about 4,500 characters, the whole card). The only dated first-party source here for the relay and medley rules, in the OLD SW numbering: “Feet lost touch with the starting platform before the preceding team-mate touched the wall SW 10.13”, “Relay exchange did not commence from the starting platform SW 10.12”, “Relay team did not swim in the order listed SW 10.15”, “Incorrect individual medley stroke order SW 9.1” and “Incorrect medley relay stroke order SW 9.3”.
World Aquatics. Competition Regulations, version June 2025, “In force as from 25 June 2025” (resources.fina.org, read 15 Oct 2026; the fetch returns about 109,000 characters and stops inside Part One, Article 7.5.5.1.7, so the swimming rules are NOT in the readable text). Cited only for what did come through: that “In force as from” line and the complete Part Two contents, eighteen sections running “1 MANAGEMENT OF COMPETITIONS” … “9 MEDLEY SWIMMING”, “10 THE RACE”, “11 TIMING”, “12 WORLD RECORDS”, “13 AUTOMATIC OFFICIATING PROCEDURE”, “14 AGE GROUP RULES – SWIMMING”, “15 SWIMWEAR AND WEARABLES”, “16 SWIMMING FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT”, “17 MEDICAL AND SAFETY SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR SWIMMING”, “18 APPENDICES”. The current February 2026 version could not be fetched at all — two attempts, both a server error.
World Aquatics. World Aquatics Points — Base Times, the SCM and LCM sheet (read 15 Oct 2026; about 3,000 characters, and the tables DID come through as readable text, checked twice in separate fetches with identical results). Two sections: “LCM (50m) 2026”, “Validity period: 01.01.2026 – 31.12.2026”, and “SCM (25m) 2026”, “Validity period: 01.09.2026 – 31.08.2027” — two courses on two different windows. Carries the note “N.B. Base times are defined based on World Records that are approved on the start date of the validity period.” Columns “BASETIME” and “BASETIME IN SECONDS” for Men and Women, plus a Mixed table. All 37 long-course and all 23 short-course entries were checked against the world records the sheet says they come from and are those records.