Swim Ireland’s major participation initiative for 2015 is to benefit from additional mainstream media support through a new relationship with the Health and Family supplement of the Irish Times.
Conor Pope and Dominique McMullan will be training to participate in the event and writing about their preparation and experience in the newspaper and its online version.
“The Irish Times is delighted to be involved with the Swim for a Mile programme.” said Joyce Hickey, editor of The Health & Family supplement.
“During the 12 weeks, our two journalists will aim to increase their skills and confidence from a few lengths to a full mile, from dipping their toes to taking the plunge, and writing about their experiences every week.”
“This is part of our forthcoming online course, Get Swimming, where we’ll have Swim Ireland training plans, video tutorials and Irish Times journalism to encourage and enthuse the thousands of people who will take up the challenge throughout Ireland’s pools. The course will go live on Feb 24th and will culminate in Swim Ireland’s “Swim for a Mile” events from May 18th.”
See how Swim Ireland stole a social media march on launching this year’s Swim for a Mile initiative.
There will be more pools involved in this year’s initiative which will also welcome back the support of Matt Cooper who last year swam the mile at each of four venues over the course of a week of outside broadcasts of the Last Word on Today FM.
“I went into last year’s Swim for a Mile thinking I knew how to swim. I didn’t,” said Cooper.
“I carried out a form of paddling which explained why it took me so long to get up and down the pool, with breaks in-between. So I was taught how to swim properly by a great coach called Brian Sweeney, who got me to put my head down into the water, showed me how to breath properly and use my arms in the right stroke.”
“Admittedly, I still can’t get my legs working properly in tandem but the feeling of achievement and satisfaction as I built up the lengths was enormous. Eventually I managed the 64 lengths of the 25 metre pool and the 32 lengths of the 50 metre pool.”
“I wasn’t fast but I managed it four times in a week last year and enjoyed the feeling of achievement enormously.”
The challenge is supported by theIrish Times, the Irish Sports Council’s Women in Sport programme and for a second year in a row by the Coca Cola Thank You fund.
The enhanced number of pools and media support should see a significant rise in the 1,000 number of those who competed the challenge in 2014.
In total there are 55 pools which will be hosting the Swim for mile event, spread across 24 counties on the island of Ireland. These include ten in Dublin, five in Galway for in Kildare and three each in Cork, Kerry, Wexford and Waterford.
“Swimming is a unique sport in which people of all abilities and ages can get involved,” said Swim Ireland CEO Sarah Keane.
“The Swim for a Mile Challenge is the perfect platform to show this. Our programme has been developed in line with the Department of Health Guidelines on exercise and aims to empower people by giving them the tools to embark on a new challenge.”
“The Coca-Cola Thank You Fund financially supports initiatives which creatively engage more people in increased physical activity,” added Erica Roseingrave, Public Affairs and Communications Manager for Coca-Cola HBC Ireland.
“Last year we awarded Swim Ireland €25,000 to help them fund the first Swim for A Mile challenge. It was a great success and this year we’re back on board again providing funding to help them to scale this great idea and grow participation. This is exactly the type of project the Coca-Cola Thank you Fund seeks to invest in.”
The Simon Communities are to be this year’s official charity partner.
For more information about the Swim Ireland “Swim for a Mile Challenge” log on to www.swimforamile.com.
Image Credit: Sportsfile
