In March this year, the global spread of Covid-19 caused the world of outdoor swimming to grind to an abrupt and unwelcomed halt virtuallyover-night. Just as the sport was set to enter into its biggest season to date, with more events taking place around the world and more swimmers taking to the outdoors than ever before, venues were forced to close, events were cancelled or postponed, all coaching stopped, and swimmers were left unable to access the open water in any capacity. It has meant that the new open water season now looks set to amount, regrettably, to nothing.
So how has the outdoor swimming community adapted to this change? Many swimmers have taken to social media to share their home pools and wheelie bin remedies to get their coldwater fix. But how are swimmers really coping now they are not able to swim? What difficulties do swim businesses now face? And how are athletes and competitive swimmers coping faced with a summer without open water events?
Here we share a handful of lockdown stories from swimmers, coaches, competitive swimmers and business owners about how they are coping without the open water.