14th Annual World's Largest Swimming Lesson underway today

Coordinated by the World Waterpark Association, the 14th Annual World's Largest Swimming Lesson™ is taking place today, 22nd June, in 18 countries with tens of thousands of children, parents, volunteers and aquatics professionals participating in the event to help raise awareness about the crucial importance of water safety.

Across the world, the association is expecting more than 35,000 participants. The first WLSL event took place in 2010 with 3,854 participants at 71 locations in five countries. Since then, more than 354,000 children and adults have taken part in the WLSL events.

The World's Largest Swimming Lesson will involve more than 600 aquatic centres, swim schools, waterparks and swimming pools.

The annual event brings together leading water safety and training organisations with all types of aquatic facilities to kick off the official start of the northern hemisphere summer by teaching children vital water safety skills to raise awareness about childhood drowning and send one focused message – Swimming Lessons Save Lives™.

This year's host locations include the USMC base in Okinawa, Japan; Disney's Typhoon Lagoon Waterpark, the Valley of the Sun YMCA in Phoenix and more than 100 Goldfish Swim Schools.

WLSL shares “research released by the American Academy of Paediatrics in 2021 shows drowning has become the leading cause of death for children ages 1-4. And, drowning remains the second leading cause of unintended injury related death for children 4-14 and the third for adolescents ages 15-17. Per the World Health Organization, drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional injury-related death, accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths worldwide.

“Research from the AAP/National Library of Medicine also shows that participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning for children ages 1-4 by 88%. TEAM WLSL urges parents and caregivers to take the time to find and enroll their kids in formal swim lessons and to back that training up with constant adult supervision whenever kids are in or near the water.”

The WLSL event, first launched in 2010, serves as a platform to use one voice to send the clear and unified message, Swimming Lessons Save Lives™. Since the program's inception, WLSL host locations have provided more than 160,000 hours of water safety training to 354,000+ children and adults, generating more than 2.5 billion media impressions about the vital importance of learning to swim.

Learn more about this program by visiting www.WLSL.org.