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Since May 2020, Sport England have been running a successful crowdfunding initiative called Active Together, helping sports clubs and other organisations to set up and run their own crowdfunding campaigns to help sustain themselves through the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis.

Initially with a £1 million budget from the National Lottery, Active Together was designed to help with the immediate financial impact of coronavirus and in the longer-term, the return to play.

To date, Sport England supported campaigns with a financial pledge towards their target fundraising amount, but in addition to this, we’ve been providing:

• free 1-2-1 coaching by experts
• advice and guidance on campaign improvements
• access to free online courses
• free 30-minute webinars, monthly.

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The first-ever virtual Swim England Artistic Swimming National Junior and Senior Championships will be streamed live on Facebook this weekend.

The competition will take place on Sunday 26 September, with the live stream starting at 10am.

There has been a total of 55 entries across the four events – Technical Solo, Technical Duet, Technical Mixed Duet and Technical Team.

Fourteen clubs have performed their routines in their own pools and submitted footage to be scored by qualified judges.

The top 12 routines from each event will be shown on the live stream, followed by announcements to reveal each winner.

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Almost 2,000 swimming pools could be lost forever by the end of the decade unless the Government and local authorities ‘act now’ to replace or refurbish ageing facilities.

Swim England has warned in its new A Decade of Decline: The Future of Swimming Pools in England report that there will be a huge reduction in the amount of water space available by 2030, which could threaten the future of aquatic sports in some areas and leave millions shut out of the activities they love.

The looming shortage is based on pools which were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s and are coming to the end of their lifespan – while not enough new facilities are being built to replace them.

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Poolside practical sessions of the Swimming Officials Judge 1 training are being resumed after being put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The move has been described as an ‘important step forward’ for volunteers who are working towards the qualification.

Since the beginning of 2020, the training has included an online theory session followed by practical poolside elements – which trainees had 11 months to complete.

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A ‘more inclusive and integrated’ consideration policy has been developed by the Swim England Para-swimming Talent Team – which will see new athletes being invited onto the programme at the beginning of next year.

The aim of the talent programme is to develop athletes’ attributes to progress onto British Para-Swimming World Class progress and perform on the international stage.

However, as a result of the pandemic limiting training and competitive opportunities there will be a slightly different approach to the programme with two phases being introduced.

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All results from the Festival of Swimming are now available as a league table.

Check your times against every other swimmer and see how you did.

Just hit the link for the full results

Swim England has confirmed the dates when the national artistic swimming events which make up the Virtual Series will take place.

Four competitions will be held for all age groups throughout September, October, November and December.

However, instead of each event being held at one venue, clubs and individuals will perform routines in their own pools during a certain time period and submit video footage which will be scored by qualified judges.

The top routines will then be shown during a Facebook live stream and the winners announced. 

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Following our success full roll out of live streaming from the first two days of Festival of Swimming at Wycombe we are committed to providing a  similar service for the events at Crawley on 31st July and 1 August.

You can catch all the action each day by following the links below:

For Saturday 31st July

For Sunday 1st August

The start times for events over the weekend are in the table below:

Saturday 31st July: session 7 – 09:15, session 8 – 12:30, session 9 – 15:45

Sunday 1st August: session 10 – 09:15, session 11 – 12:30, session 12 – 15:45

Newly-crowned Olympic champion Tom Dean admitted he was ‘lost for words’ after shattering the British record to pip his team-mate Duncan Scott to gold.

Dean, who has twice contracted Covid and spent seven weeks out of the pool in the last 12 months while he recovered, clocked 1:44.22 to touch 0.04 ahead of Scott in a thrilling 200m Freestyle race.

It sealed the first one-two for Britain in an Olympic swimming final since 1908.

It was an incredible performance from Dean, who knocked 0.36 seconds off his lifetime best to seal top spot on the podium.

He said: “I knew it was going to be a dogfight – I didn’t know how people were going to swim it.

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Swim England is aiming to stage a number of national events in 2021 as the coronavirus lockdown restrictions are being officially lifted.

The recognised national governing body will also be taking down its Covid guidance as social distancing requirements will be removed from Monday 19 July.

Instead, it has updated its coronavirus frequently asked questions page to cover the most commonly-raised queries being asked.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the UK will move into Step Four of the roadmap out of lockdown – signalling the end of the vast majority of legal Covid regulations.

As restrictions are eased, however, individuals are asked to exercise caution and venue users will need to adhere to leisure facilities’ requirements as some may choose to keep enhanced Covid measures in place beyond 19 July.

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An organisation which plays a crucial role in increasing support, visibility and engagement of the LGBTQ+ community in aquatic sports is being relaunched.

Swim England is proud to be supporting the official relaunch of Pride in Water, which coincides with the beginning of Pride Month – a celebration of LGBTQ+ communities all around the world.

Pride Month is set in June to commemorate the Stonewall riots in America and as a reminder of how far we have come with LGBTQ+ rights.

After initially forming in August 2020, Pride in Water started out as a collaborative working group of individuals who came together to fill what they saw as a gap in aquatic sports.

Josh Devine, the chair of Pride in Water, said: “It was an area that was needed and there was nothing happening there.

“We came together and thought what are we going to do and how are we going to make an impact.

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In line with the announcement by government on Monday 26 April, licensed Level 4 single club meets will be allowed to take place from 17 May 2021.

The licensed meets webpage has been updated with the new Licensed Meet Application Form for Level 4 Single Club events, where the following statement has been added closer to the end of the form:

It states:  I confirm that the appropriate Risk Assessment has been carried out and that the pool operator has approved the arrangements for Covid security.

Additionally, a dispensation on the timeframe for submission of the licence application forms is allowed.

Licensing for all other Level meets will open from 1 June with these meets permissible from 21 June, subject to the government roadmap for easing of restrictions. An updated Licensing form for these Level meets will be published in due course.

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