Individual Medley Order: The 4 Strokes in Turn

The individual medley order is butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, then freestyle. A single swimmer completes all four competitive strokes in that exact sequence, switching stroke at each turn, and the order is fixed by the sport’s world governing body, World Aquatics.

If you only remember one thing, make it “fly, back, breast, free.” That phrase covers every individual medley at every level, from club galas to the Olympic final. But there is a good reason the order is set this way, and a good reason the medley relay uses a different order, so here is how it all fits together.

The individual medley order, in full

In the individual medley (IM), one swimmer races all four strokes back to back. The order is always the same:

1. Butterfly — the most physically demanding stroke, swum first while the swimmer is freshest.
2. Backstroke — a natural follow-on, since the butterfly-to-backstroke turn is a simple touch-and-rotate.
3. Breaststroke — the slowest of the four strokes, swum third.
4. Freestyle — the fastest stroke, saved for the finish so races often come down to the final length.

That sequence is not random. Placing the exhausting butterfly first, when swimmers have the most energy, and the fast freestyle last, when races are decided, gives the IM its distinctive shape: a brutal opening and a sprint finish.

Individual medley vs medley relay order

Here is where many people get tripped up. The individual medley and the medley relay use different stroke orders, and knowing why makes both easy to remember.

Event	Stroke order	Reason for the order
Individual medley	Butterfly → Backstroke → Breaststroke → Freestyle	One swimmer; fly first while fresh, free last for the finish
Medley relay	Backstroke → Breaststroke → Butterfly → Freestyle	Backstroke must lead off because it starts in the water

The relay order is driven by a practical rule. Backstroke is the only stroke that starts in the water, with the swimmer gripping the wall and pushing off, rather than diving from the blocks. In a relay, every leg after the first begins when the previous swimmer touches the wall, and you cannot perform an in-water backstroke start off a teammate’s finish. So backstroke has to be first, which pushes the rest of the relay order into its own arrangement while freestyle stays last as the anchor.

The Olympic distances

At the Olympic Games and other major long-course meets, the individual medley is contested over two distances, both following the fly-back-breast-free order:

• 200m IM — 50 metres of each stroke.
• 400m IM — 100 metres of each stroke.

The 400m IM in particular is considered one of the toughest events in the pool, demanding elite ability in all four strokes plus the endurance to hold form across eight lengths of a 50-metre pool. Understanding the venue helps here, our guide to how long an Olympic pool is explains the standard course these times are set in.

The turns that link the strokes

The individual medley is not just four strokes stacked together; it is also a test of the transitions between them. Each change of stroke happens at a turn, and the rules for those turns are specific. Going from butterfly to backstroke, the swimmer touches the wall with both hands, then rotates onto their back to push off. From backstroke to breaststroke, the swimmer touches on their back and turns to push off on the front. From breaststroke to freestyle, a simple front-wall touch sends them into the final leg.

These turns are where medals are won and lost. A swimmer who executes a fast, legal transition gains ground on a rival who fumbles it, and because there are three stroke changes plus the normal turns within each leg, the IM demands more technical wall work than any single-stroke race. Getting a turn wrong, touching illegally or pushing off in the wrong position, can bring disqualification, so precision under fatigue is part of the challenge.

Why the IM rewards all-rounders

The individual medley is often called the truest test of swimming because it does not let a specialist hide. A swimmer who is world-class at freestyle but weak at breaststroke will lose ground in the third quarter, while a great breaststroker can be overhauled on the closing freestyle. Winning an IM requires being genuinely good at everything, plus mastering the four turns that link the strokes together.

That is why IM champions tend to be some of the most complete athletes in the sport, a theme that runs through our look at the greatest swimmers of all time. For anyone learning the strokes for the first time, building competence across all four in order is exactly the foundation our tips to start swimming guide encourages.

Remembering it for good

If the technicalities blur together, keep two short phrases in your head. For the individual medley: fly, back, breast, free. For the medley relay: back, breast, fly, free. The only difference is where backstroke and butterfly sit, and that difference exists entirely because backstroke starts in the water and therefore has to lead off a relay.

The short version: the individual medley order is butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, used at both Olympic distances (200m and 400m). The medley relay reorders those to backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle because backstroke, the only in-water start, must go first.