The Swimathon Foundation runs an annual fund raising swimathon which takes place at participating

swimming pools A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

across the UK. It is considered to be the world's largest swimming

fund raising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

event. The event has been run nationally every year since 1988 when it was originally sponsored by

Penguin Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

(chocolate biscuits) before being taken over by

British Telecom BT Group plc (formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is the largest provider of fixed-li ...

for a number of years. Prior to that a London event sponsored by LBC was run in the autumn of 1986. Over the years, more than £10 million has been raised for worthwhile causes.Duncan Goodhew biography
In its current configuration there are three separate challenges: Distance Challenge, SimplySwim and Corporate Challenge. For the Distance Challenge, individuals can choose to swim , or or they can create a team of two to five people to swim . The SimplySwim challenge allows individuals or teams to set their own targets for

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

any number of laps over any number of days up to and including the main event weekend. The event is open to all ages, with the youngest successful challenger to complete the 5 km feat being 6 years old (Leo Stuchbury - 1993) The Corporate Challenge is for teams of two to five swimmers who must complete as a team representing a company.

Duncan Goodhew Duncan Alexander Goodhew, (born 27 May 1957) is an English former competitive swimmer. After swimming competitively in America as a collegian at North Carolina State University, he was an Olympic swimmer for Great Britain and won Olympic gold ...

has been involved in the Swimathon event for many years as a public figurehead to the fundraising campaign.

External links

Official Swimathon site

Official site for the Swimathon Foundation

References

{{Reflist Swimming in the United Kingdom Sports foundations in the United Kingdom