Olympic 100m breaststroke champion Adam Peaty fears a generation of athletes will be lost as a legacy of pool closures during lockdown and beyond in England.
England went into a four-week lockdown in the early minutes of Thursday 5 November with Wednesday 2 December the projected date for its end in the wake of the spiralling number of coronavirus cases.
Under government guidelines all pools have closed with the measures confirmed on Thursday meaning swimming is restricted to school lessons as part of the national curriculum and for boarders at boarding school and those in elite training.
Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS / ISL
Swim England led a vocal campaign to have swimming redefined as an essential service with the likes of Becky Adlington, Jazz Carlin and Steve Parry – the trio with six Olympic medals between them – adding their voices.
However, it was to no avail and Swim England have instead turned their attention to fighting for a swift reopening of pools once lockdown has ended.
There are fears for the physical and mental health of people of all ages as well as the financial ramifications for pools with many not reopening following the first lockdown and the consequent knock-on for their employees and providers.
Peaty has long questioned the decision to close pools arguing they should stay open and he has again spoken out.
Speaking on Thursday following the first day of London Roar’s ISL match in Budapest, Peaty said:
“People are going back into lockdown without a month of leisure activities, gym activities and having to train outdoors.
“It’s looking very bleak and my only worry is that we have a few more months of this and we’re going to lose a generation of athletes.
“What’s keeping them in place to keep going in their sport and look at the Olympics and say I want to do that because at the moment there is not much to do that.”
A recent study by experts at Sheffield Hallam University analysed 62 million trips to gyms and leisure centres in 14 European countries since September.
The data showed there had been only 487 infections reported by operators in Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg and the UK – the equivalent of 0.78 cases per 100,000.
Double world-record holder Peaty queried the reasons behind the closures, saying:
“Very worrying times for all sport. If the government aren’t careful we’ll have a generation of kids not taking up sport, resulting in a reduced talent pool of Olympians. We’ve all seen the data that about transmission rates in leisure centres
Stay strong everyone
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Well it’s already ruined swimming in the U.S..
It has almost killed the sport in Trinidad ?? no swimming for 8 months
Melbourne Australia ?? is Just starting to get back its indoor pools since July. And it has taken 8 days of zero cases for our premier to finally give us some freedom