Event, race, competition

Hi everyone,

I was trying to explain the difference between crawl and freestyle in swimming to a friend, and this is what I said:

- Crawl is the name of the swimming style, freestyle is the name of the event. In a freestyle event swimmers can choose to swim in the style they prefer. Because crawl has proven to be the fastest style, it has been the style of choice in freestyle events for decades; hence the common assosciation between crawl and freestyle which has led to freestyle becoming a synonym for crawl.

I was wondering, is the word event used correctly above? Should I have said competition or race?

Thank you
H.