Hannah Miley reveals importance of school swimming in helping her reach top of sport

Scottish Olympian and Commonwealth Games swimmer Hannah Miley has been teaching youngsters in East Kilbride the importance of school lessons and water safety.

Swimming is a sport that can also be used as a life-saving skill and confidence builder for school pupils.

A recent push to get more youngsters in the pool is hoped to help more children become confident in the water and produce more future sporting stars.

Miley represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2014 and Great Britain at the Olympics in 2008, 2012 and 2016.

Now retired, she says school lessons played a big part in helping her reach the top of the sport.

She said: “School swimming is very impactful, especially from a long-term point of view.

“It’s all about water safety, we might be generating the next wave of Olympians, not everyone will become an Olympian, but they need to be safe around water.

“For me, school swimming was really important, it allowed me to build confidence with my classmates, and it allowed me extra time in the water.

“Going through the process of learning to swim, but the addition of having that school swimming really helped improve my skills and water safety.

Scottish Swimming CEO John Lunn added: “We do see it getting increasing support, and part of that is because of the campaigning and messaging that ourselves and our partners have been bringing.

“Local authorities and partners do recognise it as a life skill going beyond just bringing water safety and confidence to children, it also gives them other skills and confidence with each other and makes them more confident young people as they get older.”