The Filipino needed motivation to appreciate swimming as a competitive sport. This is due to the fact that their ancestors were sea-faring people owing to the more than 7,100 islands which compose this country. The American military men introduced swimming as a comparative sport in the country. 

Through the pioneering efforts of YMCA leaders working among the American Military forces, the rudiments of the sports were impressed upon the Filipinos who saw in 1907 the construction of the first swimming pool in the country at Fort McKinley YMCA. 

In 1911, Filipinos watched avidly from the sidelines as the first swimming championship meet was held at the American Columbia Club swimming pool with competing American team from the Manila YMCA, the American Columbia club, and the USS Saratoga. 

The following decade, educational institutions, the first of which was the University of the Philippines, followed later on by the Philippine Women's University, trained swimmers. 

The succeeding years up to 1951 saw the staging of the sixth Formosa Philippines Biennal Swimming championship meets, the 9th and 10th Far Eastern Games and the series of Manila-Hongkong Interport Swimming meets wherein Filipino men and women swimmers showed outstanding performance. 

Women swimmers competed in the 1931 National Women's Swimming Championships meet at the Rizal Memorial Pool where the University of the Philippines won. The PWU women's team won the championship in 1934. 

Swimming competitions were suspended during the Japanese occupation. It was only in 1948 when swimming competitions were resumed. The first Asian games held in New Delhi in 1951 gave the Filipino swimmers the opportunity to participate in international competitions.