88 STEVE PARRY:SPN Master pages 20/11/2009 11:35 Page 2
spnfeature
STEVE PARRY
the campaigning total Olympian
Steve Parry has slowly but surely become the
campaigning star of swimming in Britain. A passionate
advocate of Total Swimming which has found kids in
deprived areas and offered them the opportunity to swim, he is now the
media face of the sport, committed and always looking at the bigger picture
ot all of us believe in the stars lived miles away from pools and didn’t their area to learn to swim. But… is it
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but it is no big surprise to learn have the opportunity to swim. really a moveable feast? Steve says.
that Olympic Swimming “The plan was to take a full sized mobile “There is no reason why this programme
Champion Steve Parry was born pool to schools. Amazingly the swimming can’t be used all over the country. I have
in Manchester on 2 March 1977 so is governing body, the ASA, backed our spoken to people in Scotland, Wales and
therefore born under the water sign Pisces. crazy idea and came with us to the elsewhere. Townships in South Africa have
Steve is deservedly rated as one of government to ask for funding. We ended been using mobile pools for the last
Britain’s greatest swimmers. He gained up getting some money for a pilot couple of years. You naturally have to be
silver and bronze for the 4 x 200m freestyle programme and before we knew it, we careful with health and safety, but with the
relay and the 200m butterfly at the 2002 were up and running in Liverpool in 2007.” right support and solutions, this
Commonwealth Games in Manchester “Since then it has gone from strength to programme really makes a difference.”
followed by Olympic medal success in strength, the Olympics has really helped Steve continues: “When the programme
Athens 2004, again for the 200m butterfly. and we have the opportunity to take pools was in Manchester, we found an eight-
After 10 years Steve retired from across the whole of the country and teach year-old boy who hated school and hated
competitive swimming to commit to the a new generation of kids how to swim.” swimming. We eventually got him in the
sport locally through his club, Stockport A gorgeous swimming pool in every pool and by the time we left he had locked
Metro and countrywide via Total school in the UK would be the stuff of himself in the toilet and wouldn’t come out
Swimming, which he set up in 2004. dreams but the budgetary restrictions of until we promised the pool would stay.
Surprisingly, not always the all round local authorities rarely enable this to That is something that truly made a
swimming champion we know today, Steve become a reality. By implementing the difference in someone’s life.”
describes falling into the Thames and moveable technology of AstralPool’s A passion for innovation, learning and
almost drowning at the age of eight as a Skypool, Total Swimming’s chosen pool, excellence is the message Steve wants
“nasty experience” and continues; “I any school can benefit from six full weeks Total Swimming to convey to anyone
believe we have a moral obligation to teach of swimming at a cost to the local authority learning to swim whatever their age and
our kids to swim. Every year we suffer of just £15,000 as a contribution to the whatever their reason for wanting to learn.
tragedies where kids drown and we need to pools construction, equipment, operation There is no doubt he will be keeping an
make a big effort to solve that issue.” and most importantly specialist teaching. eye out for the next generation of home-
Steve again; “After finishing the Through this programme Total Swimming grown swimming champions that may
Olympics in 2004, my GB swimming team- has been able to reach high numbers of never have learnt to swim let alone
mate Adrian Turner and I were shocked to children who perhaps otherwise would not realised their full potential without the
find out that as many as one in five children have stuck a toe in the water. enduring this Olympian’s dedication. spn
leave primary school unable to swim. The project itself sounds perfect and has
“Within 18 months we had set up Total the added advantage of offering an
TOTAL SWIMMING
Swimming. We found kids in deprived effective solution for cash strapped local
: www.totalswimming.co.uk
areas, where they didn’t have facilities, authorities who genuinely want kids in
London mayor Boris Johnson and
Olympic star Rebecca Adlington open
“BY IMPLEMENTING THE MOVEABLE
another Pools4 Schools in the capital
TECHNOLOGY OF ASTRALPOOL’S
SKYPOOL, TOTAL SWIMMING’S
CHOSEN POOL, ANY SCHOOL CAN
BENEFIT FROM SIX FULL WEEKS OF
SWIMMING AT A COST TO THE LOCAL
AUTHORITY OF JUST £15,000”
88 Swimming Pool News December 09 Digital edition available at www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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