Speedo – Official Sportswear, Apparel and Swimming Accessories


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British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain. It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport.

The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (ASA), Scotland (Scottish Swimming) and Wales (Swim Wales).

British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

The ASA has been in existence since 1869. It was the first Governing Body of swimming to be established in the world and today remains the English national governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water, and synchronised swimming.

Although the ASA has a long history, it has moved on considerably since its foundation and is now a vibrant modern governing body providing leadership to the industry of swimming in so many ways.

It supports over 1,200 affiliated swimming clubs through a National/Regional/and sub-regional structure. It endeavours to ensure every athlete – whatever their age or level of experience – belongs to a club that provides the best possible support and environment through schemes such as swim21, the ASA’s ‘Quality Mark’ for clubs.
It organises competition throughout England, from grass-roots to elite level, including the highly successful Age Group and Youth Championships that attract more than 1,600 young swimmers aged 11-17, and the ASA Nationals.

The English talent programme is a world-leading, seamless pathway that puts in place performance opportunities for swimmers to develop their skills and potential.

The ASA’s aim of encouraging more people to swim – and have fun swimming more often – starts with creating a magic ‘first’ moment. The ASA operates a world renowned Learn to Swim award scheme based on the National Plan for Teaching Swimming , a programme the ASA has developed to take children through from their first splash to full competence in the water. With close to 2 million certificates an d badges issued to children all over the world last year alone, the Kellogg’s ASA Awards Scheme continues to be by far the most successful ever in British Sport.

Swimming is the number one participation sport, with over 20m people swimming every year, but the ASA is dedicated to giving more people, more opportunities to swim for health and for fun.

The ASA is not a provider of swimming facilities, therefore it acts as a catalyst and facilitator to ensure suitable facilities, with appropriate access and programmes, are provided to meet the needs of the community and aquatic clubs.

The ASA operates comprehensive certification and education programmes for teachers, coaches and officials. It has pioneered work on the UK Coaching Framework and is developing e-learning programmes, all of which are helping to drive up quality and ‘raise the bar’ to ensure the ASA has an appropriately skilled workforce for the whole swimming industry

The Scottish Amateur Swimming Association Limited (known as Scottish Swimming) is the national governing body for swimming, masters, diving, water polo, open water and synchronised swimming in Scotland.

Founded in 1888, The Scottish Amateur Swimming Association was incorporated into a company limited by guarantee in 2003. It comprises four districts – North, Midlands, East and West and has 160 affiliated swimming clubs across the country.

Based at the National Swimming Academy on the University of Stirling campus, Scottish Swimming has fifteen professional staff, reporting to the sport’s Board of Directors. In addition, the Council is in place to represent the needs of our clubs and members through their individual districts and manage the constitutional structure of our sport.

There are also a number of committees within the sport to manage specialist areas, including the individual disciplines.

In addition to these roles, we have thousands of volunteers across the country, working hard to support our sport and ensure its success at every level.

There are now three regions within Swim Wales – South East Wales, West Wales and North Wales . These regions have provided the delegates, committees and panel members for the Association’s comprehensive activities over the years. The regions consist of over 90 member clubs whose combined membership is in excess of 9,800 members. These three regions are based on the three geographic areas of East, West and North Wales , in line with both our Regional Development staff and the Sports Council of Wales regions.

In competitive terms, Swim Wales is heavily involved with the discipline of Swimming and more recently, Diving has had significant success with Robert Morgan. Water Polo, throughout has suffered a decline although there are some encouraging signs of a revival through our juniors’ performances.

Swimming within the has received a boost by London winning its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Founded in 1897, the Welsh Amateur Swimming Association set its objectives to promote and encourage swimming and water polo.

Over the years, our objectives have expanded to embrace other disciplines including synchronised swimming, diving and lifesaving. We also hold, manage and control Closed, National and Open Championships, including Masters and organise the sport in the Principality.

In June 2004, the association became a company limited by guarantee and began trading as Swim Wales.

Details of the earliest days are somewhat vague. It is clear from what little information is available, that in the early thirties, most of the competitive swimming was undertaken inSouth Wales with the main areas being Newport, Cardiff and Swansea . During this time, Mrs Bernice Hooper (1936-1939) was a Welsh Champion and she is still active within the association.

In the early post-war years, Welsh swimming was at its lowest ebb, as few pools remained open during the war and swimmers either being called up or very few competitions available. By 1952, pools were beginning to re-open and schools began to take an active parting providing swimmers for the future.

The building of the Wales Empire Pool at Cardiff for the1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games supplied the impetus so urgently needed by the sport in the Principality. This resulted in many more clubs being formed. This continued through the 1960s and 1970s, aided by the tremendous surge in the construction of new sports centres and swimming pools, all resulting in additional organisation and responsibilities for the association.

Moving Forward
In 2001, well after celebrating its centenary, it was decided that swimming in should undergo a complete review of its workings and this was done during 2002 and 2003.
A Strategic Plan was developed with a clear and concise Vision Statement.
From this review came a four-year plan. The 2003 Annual General Meeting of WASA confirmed this plan and following that meeting, WASA took the recommendations on board and the plan has been implemented.

WSCA seeks to represent the interests of the world’s swimming coaches towards other national and international bodies or organisation, including FINA. To provide leadership and assistance in the sport of swimming and
swimming coaching, through:

1. Cooperating with other interest groups.
2. Organizing international seminars, forums, and clinics.
3. Creating exchange programs between countries.
4. Assisting in publishing and distributing written and filmed materials.
5. Encouraging, developing and educating swimming coaches.

Co-founders James Parrack and Matthew O’Connor grew up in local swimming clubs and both went on to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games. Both experienced training camps as youngsters with their clubs in Europe and as seniors with the British team around the world.
Their goal is to create the ideal training environment to make your camp as successful as it can be and help your athletes as they pursue their sporting dreams.

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