Aquatics GB and AP Race are proud to be teaming up to deliver a social impact project that will positively impact hundreds of people across this month's Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.
After a successful initiative at the 2024 event saw more than 800 individuals from the community around the London Aquatics Centre engaged in inclusive opportunities, Aquatics GB will again be providing daily water-based activities for groups - the majority of them children and young adults - that help them develop key skills and promote the benefits of a love of water, as well as supplying some with complimentary tickets to watch from the stands as Olympic and Paralympic champions contest some world-class races.
As part of this updated social impact programme for 2025, triple Olympic champion Adam Peaty's AP Race Team are on board to support across a selection of the events - beginning with a water safety and confidence session for primary school children on Tuesday 15th April. Run in joint collaboration with Swim England, Everyone Active and BADU – a social impact organisation who work directly with the kids involved in this session – Adam himself will be attending the session, as he continues to inspire the next generation of swimmers of all abilities, from poolside as well as with his own performances.
“We are very proud to partner with Aquatics GB across the social impact sessions at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships. Over the last six years, myself and Adam have poured all our efforts into building AP Race as a brand that can have the maximum impact in swimming and push the competitive swimming experience to be at the highest level. This collaboration is not a standalone event. We are working hard with Aquatics GB to ensure that the swimmers we interact with throughout the week at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships then get the opportunity to engage with swimming again at our various events that AP Race hosts at the London Aquatics Centre. We are committed to ensuring the impact we have through this collaboration is long-lasting," said Ed Baxter, AP Race CEO and co-founder.
"Whether it is our signature AP Race Clinics, our online education platform AP Race Plus or our flagship event, the AP Race London International which is the largest open international swimming event in the world, we want to drive every swimmer, parent and coach to become Better Than Yesterday."
Aquatics GB will also be supported by AP Race on two water safety sessions for secondary school age children on Thursday 17th April, jointly with the charity StreetGames, while Olympic gold medallist and AP Race Development Ambassador Anna Hopkin and Tokyo Olympian Alice Dearing, co-founder of the Black Swimming Association, will be on hand with their experience for a female empowerment session aimed at female club swimmers on the same day, which has been set up to further build participation and progression of women within aquatics. For more information and to sign up for that event, click here - with applications closing on Monday 7th April.
Friday's activities will include an Aquatics GB Clubs Masterclass in between racing sessions in the competition pool, with the AP Race Team again involved in an engaging and impactful activity that ensures the reach of these Aquatics GB Swimming Championships go well beyond British titles and team selection for the summer's World Championships in Singapore.
Additional sessions across the week of the Championships are set to include a ‘community dip’, delivered in partnership with Mental Health Swims, and a disability discovery session with Level Water and Everyone Active that was hugely impactful in 2024. There will also be an event delivered in the water for 15 local children with visual impairments, supported by charity VICTA.
On top of all this, hundreds of children from the community will get the chance across the week to watch a session of racing at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, as we look to improve access to swimming environments and events for those from traditionally under-represented in the world of aquatics.
Speaking about the importance of this year's social impact project and the valuable support of AP Race, Aquatics GB CEO Drew Barrand said: "We are very proud of the reach and engagement we saw across our community sessions at last year's Aquatics GB Swimming Championships - and we are excited that Adam and the AP Race Team are on board to help our ambition for even greater engagement this year, with many of these events reaching those from disadvantaged communities who may be experiencing aquatics for one of the first times.
"While our elite athletes will be competing for World Championship selection and looking to come out on top of some eye-catching races, these Championships are also a platform for us to help promote a love of aquatics and the importance of the life-saving skill that swimming is. This six-day community involvement programme will play an important part in that for children and young adults living around the London Aquatics Centre area, while we will also be continuing to make lots of noise about the Support School Swimming campaign that we have launched with Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales, to raise awareness of the vital importance of school swimming across the country.
"Whether it is with a view to becoming the next Duncan Scott or Alice Tai, or just to be able to enjoy being safe in the swimming pool on holiday or by seas and rivers, we hope these activities can be a part of the tangible, long-lasting impact of our Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at this iconic venue."