Mapping the Competitive Swimming Sports Medicine Literature: A Bibliometric Analysis of Injuries, Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Performance

Introduction Competitive swimming sports medicine is an interdisciplinary field encompassing musculoskeletal injury prevention, exercise physiology, biomechanics, rehabilitation, and performance optimization. This study aimed to characterize the growth, contributors, collaboration networks, and thematic evolution of research involving competitive swimmers. Methods A two-layer search strategy was applied to the Web of Science Core Collection using sport-specific topic terms and selected Web of Science categories, including Sport Sciences, Orthopedics, Rehabilitation, Pediatrics, Nutrition & Dietetics, and Psychology Applied. Publications were analyzed using VOSviewer and Bibliometrix to evaluate annual output, productive authors, institutions, countries, journals, citation patterns, co-authorship networks, and keyword co-occurrence. Results The search identified 1,825 publications published between 1969 and June 2026. Annual output increased from fewer than five publications per year before 1985 to a peak of 95 publications in 2021. Sport Sciences was the dominant Web of Science category, accounting for 92.7% of records. The United States, Australia, and Portugal were the leading contributing countries. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise was the most productive journal, with 142 publications. Major research clusters involved swimming biomechanics, training physiology, athlete monitoring, and clinical sports medicine, including swimmer’s shoulder, rotator cuff pathology, scapular dysfunction, and overuse injury. Discussion The field has evolved from an early emphasis on hydrodynamics and stroke mechanics toward exercise physiology, training monitoring, injury prevention, rehabilitation, immunology, nutrition, and athlete health. Research remains concentrated in a limited number of countries and institutions, while injury surveillance, para swimming, masters swimming, and standardized return-to-sport criteria remain underdeveloped. Conclusion Competitive swimming sports medicine has developed into a multidisciplinary research field integrating biomechanics, physiology, musculoskeletal injury management, and performance science. This bibliometric map identifies influential contributors and emerging research priorities while highlighting the need for standardized injury definitions, improved surveillance, and clinically applicable return-to-sport guidance.