British swim club gives opportunity to all

Sharks liaised with local schools to encourage interested children to learn to swim and then compete and then teach swimming if they wanted to.

The Sharks Swimming Club was formed in 1982 when six men with a physical impairment wanted to train for swimming competition in Great Britain but found there was nothing that catered for them.

They hired their own lane at our National Sports Centre and started to train. Within two years, they had our first Paralympic medallists but they didn’t stop there. They made the training accessible to all impairments and included junior swimmers who also wanted to train.

Within two years they were producing local, national and international swimmers and the only criteria for joining was that they had an impairment and they wanted to compete.

Swimmers were not just competing but also gaining skills in teaching and coaching as they were mentoring their fellow sportsmen and women. Sharks encouraged and trained their swimmers not just to compete but to gain qualifications in teaching, coaching and sports leadership by gaining nationally recognised qualifications.

Sharks liaised with local schools to encourage interested children to learn to swim and then compete and then teach swimming if they wanted to.

A learn-to-swim section was started and a Sharks section was also started in a neighbouring borough in an able-bodied swimming club (Saxon Crown, Lewisham) trained by Sharks former swimmers and coaches. Realising that our intellectually impaired were not as well catered for a Special Olympics section was also formed.

Sharks is not just about producing champions, but it is also about giving an opportunity for everyone to enjoy swimming and to encourage others to gain the joy of sport in both competing and teaching. Thirty years on, it is still doing just that and those original six members are still good friends.

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