“Adam Peaty A Fantastic Role Model,” Says Swim England CEO Amid #LoveSwimming Campaign
Swim England CEO Andy Salmon has described Adam Peaty as a “fantastic role model” in and out of the pool.
Peaty won 100m breaststroke silver at Paris 2024 behind winner Nicolo Martinenghi to add to his golds from Rio 2016 and Tokyo three years ago.
That followed a journey back to the pool and the podium after well-documented struggles with his mental health.
Salmon was speaking at the launch of Swim England’s #LoveSwimming campaign which is highlighting the wider benefits of swimming lessons for children in terms of happiness, confidence and social skills.
Adam Peaty: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow/Aquatics GB
Peaty himself couldn’t bear the water as a child before he overcame his fears and went on to reach the pinnacle.
Salmon told Swimming World:
“He’s a fantastic role model in so many ways. What he has achieved in the water doesn’t need to be repeated, it is astonishing.
“But it’s the story, isn’t it? One of the abiding memories for me of Paris is much more narrative around the stories around the athletes. The focus on nine female members of Team GB being mothers – wonderful, wonderful story.
“The focus around Adam and his journey and his openness around some of the struggles that he has gone through.
“As a family when he was starting out and the cost of pursuing a career in swimming and then more recently the mental health challenges that he has talked about.
“It just gives permission for all of us to say well, if this superhuman athlete can be so open and endure some of these challenges, then it’s okay for us to accept that we may face challenges as well.
“It’s analogous with the message around swimming lessons: his impact is so much more than swimming breaststroke very quickly. It’s so much wider than that.”
While a tiny minority will go on to compete in international waters, the #LoveSwimming campaign is creating awareness of the benefits of swimming to children and parents.
Salmon continued: “The research shows us really clearly that the benefits go way beyond the ability to swim and stay safe in the water: there are many developmental, sociological, benefits for those children.”
Swim England’s research has shown that over two thirds of parents (68%) agree that swimming lessons have helped their child to make new friends.
- Nearly 7 in 10 parents whose children are currently having lessons agree that their child’s concentration levels improve after swimming lessons.
- Alongside the wider developmental benefits, swimming lessons make children happy – 91% of parents agree that their child enjoys their swimming lessons.
This is all about the wider benefits,” said Salmon. “Research showed that 84% of parents said swimming lessons helped their child improve their confidence or self-esteem.
“In this age of social media where it’s so hard to get our children off their phones, imagine as a parent you can find an activity that not only gets your child off the phone and away from some of those negative influences and all those negative things we know so much about social media now…..84%, that is a phenomenal statistic.
“It also helps them make new friends: I suspect that one of the consequences of the social media age is that people are sitting in their bedrooms online. This gives them social interaction face to face.
“We’ve done a series of roadshows around the country and I was really struck by this idea that I had parents in the room talking about their children. They said my child has got this network of friends but as a subset of that network of friends, they’ve got their special friends and that’s their swimming friends.
“Countless parents have said this. And these special friends are people they connect with through swimming and some of them have children who subsequently moved on and moved out of a club environment and maybe even stopped swimming but they still had this really special network of friends. “Again that is a fantastic social benefit from swimming lessons.”