Prince William Meets Olympic & Paralympic Champions To Promote Access To Swimming
Olympic champions Adam Peaty and Tom Dean and Paralympians Maisie Summers-Newton and Louise Fiddes met the Prince of Wales to highlight the importance of access to swimming and its benefits for physical and mental health.
The quartet joined Prince William at the Birtley Community Pool in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, north-east England, following the reopening of the pool which had been closed by Gateshead Council in July 2023 due to increased energy and operational costs.
Following the closure, local volunteers set up the charitable organisation, Birtley Community Aquatic Centre (BCAC), with the aim to reopen the pool as a not-for-profit venture.
In a real community effort, local residents contributed to a crowdfunding campaign with businesses and tradespeople contributing their time and resources pro bono to help refurbish the facilities while also securing funding from Sport England.
The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ Community Impact Programme also provided funding to meet refurbishment costs and announced a new partnership with the Birtley Community Pool to provide swimming lessons and lifeguard training for the local community, enabling young people to learn and develop essential life-saving skills.
In a speech at the event, Prince William said:
“We want to replicate this across the country because swimming is such an important part of life.
“It can save your life, it’s a great skill, it’s fun, it gives you health, there are social reasons, it is good for people who are isolated.
“All these things are really important and why we need community swimming pools to remain, and come back to life again.”
He also revealed that he didn’t attend the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in order to protect the health of the Princess of Wales who was having chemotherapy.
Peaty tested positive for Covid hours after winning silver in the 100m breaststroke in the French capital.
Peaty also announced on social media that the AP Race brand he co-founded with Ed Baxter and which runs clinics and swim meets had entered into a collaboration with the Royal Foundation.
Peaty said: “This work will bring aquatics organisations across the swimming sector together to help support more people accessing our incredible sport, breaking down barriers and protecting our facilities and swimming pools, where people spend so much crucial time for both their physical and mental health.
“It was an honour for me and members of the team, Katie and Kev to be invited to this event and to be part of the working group for a number of months now, looking to create positive change within swimming.
“Today we celebrated the reopening of Birtley Community Swimming pool. The people and trustees are a shining example of what can be done when you work collaboratively with hard work, persistence and will power.
“As always, our mission is to help everyone, regardless of their swimming journey become… Better Than Yesterday.”