Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre require different tactics and showcase several different racing strategies that are more common to competitive cycling, marathon running and water polo than traditional pool swimming. It is one of the few Olympic sports where the athlete's coaches play a critical role during the actual event. The coaches have four opportunities to provide drinks to their athletes as the athletes swim by floating pontoons in the course. If the coach falls in the water, his or her athlete is immediately disqualified. Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon 10 kilometre The men's marathon 10 kilometre event at the 2008
Swimming (sport) 10 km event is included in the Olympic schedule, again for both men and women. Open-water competitions are typically separate to other swimming competitions with the exception of the World Championships and the Olympics. In competitive swimming, four major styles have been established. These have been relatively stable over the last 30–40 years with minor improvements. They are: In competition, only one of these styles may be used except in the case of the individual medley, or IM, which consists of all four. In this latter event, swimmers swim equal distances of butterfly, then backstroke, breaststroke, and finally, freestyle. In