At the Olympic/World level, has anyone won a FREESTYLE swim event by swimming a stroke other than the crawl?

Question

Long time ago, my swim team coach used to make us swim another stroke (usually Butterfly) in Freestyle heats against teams that weren't as good as us. This was to make it more competitive, I suppose. Does anyone know at the National or World competition level if any swimmer has ever won a finals race swimming something other than the Crawl in a Freestyle race?

Answer 1

Before the crawl found favor as a competitive swimming stroke, yes. It was considered an un-gentlemanly stroke because of all the splashing. After people realized you could swim much faster, it became the preferred way to swim "Freestyle."