Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington has issued a vital warning to parents: never buy your children blue swimwear. Following a devastating week that saw 19 people across the UK tragically drown, the swimming champion has shared crucial water safety advice. Rebecca has joined forces with The Mirror’s Save Lives for Sam campaign to help stop the "catastrophic" deaths of the 33 children who drown in England every single year.
While Rebecca believes swimming should be treated with the same academic importance as reading and writing, she insists that protecting your children starts with what they wear in the water – a crucial factor that many parents forget. When it comes to her own three children – Summer, 11, Albie, 5, and three-month-old Thea – Rebecca has banned some swimming costumes. Because blue or light coloured fabric camouflages perfectly with the bottom of a pool or the ocean, it makes a struggling child incredibly difficult to spot. Instead, she urges parents to buy high-visibility swimwear in bright shades like neon orange or red, which instantly stand out underwater.
She said: "You will not see your child at the bottom of the pool if they're wearing [something] white, pastel colours, baby blue, or grey. Bright red is brilliant. It might not be your child's favourite colour but you need to see them at the bottom of the pool." Now 37, Becky spoke to the Mirror at her Leeds branch of her company Swim! which she founded with fellow Olympian Steve Parry MBE. The duo have already opened 13 hubs before investing a further £2million more this year opening centres in Leeds and one in Droylsden.
All of her children started swimming lessons as newborns, with her eldest taking the plunge at just three weeks old. According to the champion, timing is everything. She told the Mirror: "The absolute sweet spot to learn to swim is between 3 and 5, that is like the fundamental age where they understand body position in the water so you can educate them and it is before they develop their fear too much. My little boy is five, he's whizzed through the different stages just in those two years because he's not got that fear and he has been able to progress so quickly, which is amazing to see." But her eldest daughter Summer won't be following in her mum's footsteps – hilariously telling her that she "doesn't want to be like you" and prefers the social side of swimming over intense competition.
Rebecca won the hearts of the nation at the Beijing 2008 Games, securing two Gold medals, and smashing an Olympic record. But while she may be one of the world's strongest swimmers, she too has come close to drowning. She said: "It was after Beijing and I was 21. I remember going to Australia and getting in the sea at Bondi Beach and I was so terrified when I got caught up in the waves. I felt like I was choking, I knew I could get out of it, I felt in control but it absolutely terrified me. Pretty much since then I haven't gone back in. I don't go in the sea any more because I found it so scary. It's that rip thing – every time a wave crashed it took me under. Every time I came up another one would hit. I really struggled and I came out of there and was like 'Wow!' At the time I was at the height of my career, the height of my swimming training, doing 75,000 metres in the pool every week but every time I came up I just got sucked back down. Even the strongest of swimmers, anything can happen. It was only one really bad minute… luckily I felt in control and then I managed to come up and get a bigger breath and then swim forward. It took my real strength to get out past the waves. I'm an Olympic swimmer, and I struggled!"
Becky and Steve Parry are now on a mission to give children better access to lessons, with the pair opening up three more centres this year, giving 10,000 more children access to lessons. "We need over a hundred of these across the UK but we're slowly getting there," Becky said. "Look, swimming isn't one of the biggest sports in this country. You see football splashed all over the papers. Swimming might get this little tiny mention. Yet, drownings are so regular. They happen all the time, especially in the summer months. And yet nothing is ever done about it, nothing changes." Speaking of her wave drama: "It really scared me, absolutely terrified me, I was absolutely exhausted after that. In that instant, I thought, nobody stands a chance unless you are a confident swimmer."
What everyone should be able to do in water: Swim England strongly recommends that everyone should be able to perform 'four water competencies': perform a star float for at least 60 seconds, tread water for at least 30 seconds, experience of swimming in clothing, swim at least 100 metres with ease and without stopping, and understand the Water Safety Code.
