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First and foremost, it's paramount for young child to learn how to swim, and the best place for that to happen is at primary school if they've got the facilities.

No matter whether you're an Olympic swimmer or you're someone who doesn't like to swim, your kids should learn this life skill. You can't be next to them every second, so they must be able to relax in the water and get themselves to safety.

I didn't learn to swim until I was 21 or something because I grew up in the mountains in Wyoming and all the water is glacier runoff and cold.

I came to water late. I learned to swim at the age of 20.

Swimming has its educational value - mental, moral, and physical - in giving you a sense of mastery over an element, and of power of saving life, and in the development of wind and limb.

Born on an island, I could swim before I could walk, thrown many times into swimming pools and warm transparent Caribbean waters: sink or swim, that was my first lesson. While I'm not a natural athlete, I'm still a strong swimmer and feel a great affinity with the sea.

Growing up in Alaska, they don't really teach you to swim there. I learned to swim just a few summers ago with Olympic gold medalist Amanda Beard. She did great, and right after that I went to get scuba certified. I had fun with it. I didn't really get scared, but some people thought that was a risk.

Daily repetition matters when a kid is learning to swim. It can be 20 minutes in a lesson or an hour practicing for a couple of weeks.

I swam at school a lot. Long-distance swimming in pools, and diving, then when we moved to Hastings when I was 13 I used to swim in the sea all the time; I loved it out of season and when it was rough.

Oh! Most miserable wretch that I am! Why have I not learnt how to swim?