Olympic gold medalist Becky Adlington has offered 5,000 free swimming lessons this summer through her Swim! swimming school after reading a BBC report on the number of children unable to swim 25m.

She also said she wanted to work with councils to help young people learn.

Adlington said the issue of pool closures had "been really bad for a really long time" but there were lots of issues involved, so it was a difficult problem to solve.

She said: "Lets join forces, we want to work with councils."

Speaking to BBC Radio WM, she said: "I think a lot of people want to blame Covid and the fact that the pools were closed, but actually the statistics have been bad before then because unfortunately swimming pools are closing across the UK and they have done for the past 10 years."

The BBC research, based on Department for Education data, showed that while 72% of Year 6 children on average left school able to swim 25m in 2024-25, the numbers dropped to just 55% for schools with a higher proportion of disadvantaged children.

In 2021, Swim England published its Decade of Decline report, warning almost 2,000 swimming pools could be lost forever by 2030.

Adlington said: "How can we expect children to do school swimming or pay for private lessons if there aren't swimming pools?"

She said she recognised councils were short of money, but she added: "I think the issue here is there are so many issues."

Other issues included affordability, transport and school funding, she said.

She added: "When we hear that nearly three in ten children are leaving primary school unable to swim 25 metres, and that the figures are even worse in some communities, it's clear that more needs to be done.

"That's why we're making more than 5,000 lessons available for free until September, helping families access a skill that could save a life."

The lessons can be booked through the Swim! website and must be claimed by next week.

The response so far had been "just amazing" she said, and the priority was not to create Olympic-swimmers, but just to improve water-confidence.

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