Former Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington OBE has launched a £1m fund to help schoolchildren in Nottinghamshire have access to swimming pools. The Olympic medallist, from Mansfield, is launching the lifeline for schools, after data showed that one in three children leave primary school unable to swim 25 metres.
She fears this number will be much higher due to the rising trend for school pool closures. That's why she is launching The Movement Project - an initiative from Total Swimming Academies and Vivify Venues - which is offering schools in Nottinghamshire a £1million investment fund to help them remain open.
Ms Adlington, who won two Olympic gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, told Nottinghamshire Live: "I grew up in Mansfield using Beechdale Baths - which is long gone now. It's great having that big, shiny new pool but actually the community needs those smaller, less fancy pools as well.
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"The whole community needs to have access to a pool and not have to travel 30 minutes or more to get there. That's not going to be possible. So it's important to have a mixture of both."
For the decorated swimmer, it isn't simply about finding those in Nottinghamshire who could go right to the very top when it comes to swimming. It's about making sure everyone who wants to get in the pool can do so, regardless of where they live or go to school.
She continued: "It's about giving kids the opportunity to learn to swim and see if they like it.
"It's about getting them safe in the water. If we find another Olympian in Nottinghamshire, that would obviously be fantastic - but it's about making sure they have had the opportunity to learn and take it further if they want to. A lot of kids don't get that opportunity."
The funds can be used for a range of maintenance works including new changing room facilities, viewing galleries, pool plant works or to build a reception area. In addition, The Movement Project will support schools in managing facility operations to ensure school pool and dry side facilities stay open outside of school hours.
Ms Adlington also won two bronze medals in the 2008 Olympics. To learn more about the funding, please click here.
It comes after Nottingham City Council deemed the former John Carroll Leisure Centre, in Radford, surplus to requirements. The facility, which included a pool, closed in June 2021 but the decision has paved the way for it to be handed over the local authority's property department and for the site to be sold.
Elsewhere in the county, a new leisure centre in Bingham will include a six-lane swimming pool and a new pool is planned in a new complex with a gym in Warsop.
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