Politics of swimming

Can swimming outdoors be an escape from politics? Rowan Clarke finds out.

Immersing in a river or ocean feels as far from political as it’s possible to get. It’s one of the reasons we love swimming outdoors. And yet, every aspect of our presence in any swimming spot is soaked in policy and legislation. From how our swimwear is made to the quality of the water and our access to it, politics are ever-present and have never been more important.

It’s a difficult reality. Our draw to the water is strong, primal even, so it’s small wonder that swimming in it feels like a right and anything that makes that difficult, prevents access, excludes people, limits or impinges our experience is challenging.

But there’s a positive side to swimming politics, too. Policy and legislation can help level out inequalities and improve access, health, opportunity and our swimming experience. Plus, when it comes to activism, nobody campaigns like swimmers.

Access all areas

Access is one of the biggest issues for all swimmers. Whether you’re counting laps at the pool or bobbing in the sea, being able to access swimming is highly politicised.

Let’s start with the question of who can swim. A complex set of political and economic factors means that your age, sex, upbringing, socioeconomic status, race, health and physicality determine when, how, where and if you can swim.

“As open water coaches and swim teachers, we often see the lack of diversity and inclusion in all its forms in swimming outdoors and indoors, but particularly the ‘wilder’ you get, the more obvious it is,” says Maggy Blagrove, founder of Open Minds Active. “Barriers are intersectional, complex and numerous. Access is hard if you are a wheelchair user, have limited mobility, are socially isolated, have no money, no car, lack confidence, etc.”

Charitable organisations like Open Minds Active can help us understand, communicate and remove those societal barriers to swimming, but they depend completely on funding.

“It depends on the zeitgeist and what national or local funders see as priorities at the time,” explains Maggy. “Inclusion is fundamentally who we are. If it’s not our focus, the people who need support the most will simply not get it. All our social prescribing wild swim for wellbeing programmes are oversubscribed and we have a waiting list for our learn to swim programmes. Inclusion and access speak directly to the health inequalities that are so prevalent in our society today.”

Funding is a massive issue across the charitable and public sectors. Take access to indoor swimming pools, for example. Local governments have a pot of money to subsidise public pools, but those funds are overstretched. The result is that since 2010, pools have been closing at an alarming rate – especially in poorer, inner-city areas.

This is due to what Philip Brownlie, Head of Public Affairs at Swim England, describes as a “perfect storm” of ageing pool stock, budget cuts, and increased pressure on local governments to fund other, more pressing social and health-related issues like homelessness and social care.

“Three times as many publicly accessible pools have closed in poor areas. And even if the pool’s not closing, there is a real risk that through budgets getting squeezed and pools having to operate more and commercially then you’re going to start pricing out the very people that we want to see using them more and could benefit the most,” he says. “Swimming is, sadly, already predominantly a richer, whiter sport. And we want to change that.”

Where we swim

Unlike indoor pools, the number of managed outdoor swimming venues is growing. Private lakes and lidos keep swimmers safer, monitor environmental factors like water quality, and offer better access for more swimmers, such as people with disabilities.

They also host groups like Open Minds Active. But, like indoor pools, they have operational costs, meaning that they have to charge entry or membership fees. This raises the same issues around inclusion. Plus, many swimmers perceive managed venues as the antithesis of swimming wild and free.

Let’s not start on the politics of calling it ‘wild’ swimming but instead discuss the mammoth political issues of access rights and water quality. These two interlinked issues have dominated mainstream media and influenced last year’s general election.

While we can freely swim in the sea, our right to swim in rivers, lakes, and streams in England and Wales is a grey area. There is no statutory right to swim in 97% of English and Welsh rivers, a fact that landowners often levy to banish swimmers. But whether land ownership includes the water running through it is debatable, and, as trespass is generally a civil issue (it’s only a criminal offence in some situations), many argue that we have the freedom to swim where we like.

“The way that, not rights, but freedoms evolve in our system of law is through customary practices and customary use,” explains Jon Moses, writer and campaigner with Right2Roam. “So, you might say there’s a customary freedom – there’s nothing explicitly stating that you cannot swim on the water. Conversely, there’s nothing protecting you either.”

Granting designated bathing water status is one way, says Philip Brownlie, that the government can improve access to outdoor swimming.

“We think there’s scope for the government to go much further in making it clear that water spaces should be enjoyed for recreation,” he says. “There’s a spectrum with what the government could do there from a right to roam like they have in Scotland, through to extending, expanding and creating many more designated bathing waters, which are a way of saying these are places to be enjoyed.”

Protecting the rivers themselves is sewn into the issue of access and segues nicely into the debate about improving water quality.

“[Designated bathing water status] is pretty much the only driver we’ve got in this country to clean up rivers to public health standards at the moment,” says Michelle Walker from the Rivers Trust.

This is partly about collecting data over a season to create a picture of a river’s health – but it’s also about empowering a community to fight for its local river.

Protest and activism

The River Wye is a brilliant example of how community activism can work. It’s no coincidence that North Herefordshire, the constituency bordered by the River Wye, voted in its first Green Party MP at the last general election after she praised campaigners and pledged to support the River Wye Manifesto. Nor that the Wye is one of England and Wales’ 3% of rivers that we can freely access.

“It has historic bankside use, so you can walk most of its length of the Wye, and you can swim it,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s become such a symbolic example of grassroots fighting for the natural world, and that is super interesting.”

A joyful, creative approach to activism in outdoor swimming is characterised by The River Wye’s figurehead, the Goddess of the Wye, who lends her notoriety to the film about Bristol’s campaign for better water quality, Rave on for the Avon.

“So much of the conversation around our rivers and the threat to their health is understandably full of anger and frustration,” says the film’s director, Charlotte Sawyer. “The focus on people’s love of rivers, which we need to keep us going as campaigners, is foundationally transformational because it will completely change how governments, water companies and businesses interact with rivers.”

Swimming activism happens on all sorts of levels – litter picks, petitions, raising funds and awareness, engaging with local MPs – the list goes on.

One example is the Cornish synchronised swimming group Out of Sink, which protested climate change for Cop26 by walking the predicted 2050 tide line. Another is Reclaim the Sea, an initiative that offers swimming lessons to help people who have often experienced traumatic crossings reconnect with the sea.

“The sea can be such a beautiful and healing space, but because of many different circumstances it’s not available or accessible to a lot of people,” says Director Rebecca van der Veer. “That might be because of sea crossings that they have had to make or not being able to access water in their home countries, potentially because of their gender. There are so many different barriers and the sea can then become a terrifying place.”

Raising awareness

Talking to Rebecca raises the issue of people crossing seas in small boats while others choose to swim them. In January last year, the first winter swimming relay team successfully crossed the English Channel. But only a short distance from their support boat, a small boat sank, killing five people.

It’s a more challenging example of how global politics ripples into the swimming world. But it also emphasises human vulnerability, which can help raise funds, awareness, and support.

“The person who’s swimming across the channel also needs a boat to be safe – it shows how vulnerable we can all be in the sea,” says Rebecca. “It’s about learning from people and their experiences. I think empathy can grow from having more understanding of who people are.”

Knowing this, many swimmers take on swims to make a political statement. For example, on August 7, 1987, the American marathon swimmer Lynne Cox swam the Bering Strait, crossing the border from the United States to what was the Soviet Union to show that the two countries were neighbours, receiving praise from both nations’ leaders.

All around the world, people show immense bravery against political oppression, war and injustice through swimming. Martin Luther King Jr’s participation in ‘wade-ins’ at segregated beaches and pools in Florida in 1964 as part of the Civil Rights Movement; Israeli women illegally taking Palestinian women across the border to swim in the ocean to protest free movement; Ghanaian musician Wanlov the Kubolor protesting against pollution by swimming naked in a sea of plastic.

From global politics through national, regional, and local politics, right down to micro politics like swimming pool lane etiquette and what we call swimming outdoors, every part of our swimming experience is politicised.

While we’re free to enjoy the escapism that swimming affords us, there is so much we can do to protect and enhance that experience for ourselves and others. Lobby, protest, speak out. Write to your local MP, join a march, choose sustainable swimwear or support a charity. As the people who love swimming, we have both the power and the passion.

Lead photo: Out of Sink synchronised swimming team