I think climbing deserves to be an Olympic sport, as it is one of the few natural movements – like swimming or running, things that people have been doing for a thousand years.
St. Lucia was a place were we used to go on vacation – not every year, but we went there a couple of times. I remember the last time that I went there, I was really small, and the only memory that I have is that my dad was going swimming or fishing one day – and I really, really wanted to go – but I was too young.
My daughters are both funny and smart and lots of fun. They play lacrosse, soccer, musical instruments, like to cook with me, and are naturals in the swimming pool. Honestly, though, what I like doing most with them is eating. I’ve worked really hard to make sure they are willing to try all sorts of different foods.
Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It’s ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don’t wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours – the loneness of the long distance runner.
I guess it turns out choosing your life partner from a group of men trying to get their break in show business by sitting around shirtless in a swimming pool while cameras watch around the clock isn’t the path to a soulmate after all.
During my days as a soccer player, my teammates used to call me ‘Touch’ because I have a touch of blonde hair on my forehead which is a birth mark. But now swimming is my favourite sport.
I’ve been swimming recreationally about five times a week for years just at the Y.
I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I wasn’t swimming. It is what I want to do now; it is what I want to do in the foreseeable future, and that is what I’m focusing on.
I’m just a simple guy swimming in a sea of sharks.
Nobody cared about swimming. You could draw a crowd for basketball.
Swimming is by far the best tonic I’ve found for my back. I’m not a good swimmer – I do the breaststroke or elementary backstroke in the slow lane – but when I took a two-week break from swimming I was surprised how much I missed it.
Open-water swimming scares the hell out of me.
All of the people in L.A. are really nice, and it’s sunny all the time. Plus, there’s so much to do there. You can go hiking in the hills, you can go swimming in the ocean, you can go surfing… You can do everything.
I was very into swimming, but I was never into contact sports. I think it was because I knew I wasn’t going to get damaged.
Anything that’s outdoorsy and fun, like hiking, biking, running, paddleboarding, swimming in the ocean… and then I’ll mix in Pilates, yoga, spin, ballet.
My earliest food memory is being starving hungry after swimming. I think that’s quite common with children: the second you’re out of the water you want to have a Twix, a cup of tea and chips and salty stuff.
Millions of Americans each year use our national forests to go hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, swimming, horseback riding, and canoeing.
It was actually drumming that gave me the stamina to get into sports later. I started playing drums at 13, and when I got to the international touring level… I got interested in cross-country skiing, long-distance swimming, bicycling… things that require stamina, not finesse.
Both the velodrome and the Commonwealth swimming pool are open to the public and are frequently used by local schools and the local community. Over the last six years young people have been inspired to take up swimming and cycling more seriously; some of them are now coming through as Olympic champions or hopefuls.
Water for me is so essential, like swimming.
Sunday morning is time to slob around and perhaps go swimming.
I’m fair-skinned, so beaches are a bit boring for me. I’m either smeared in lotion or under a shade. However, I do love the sea – diving, swimming and snorkelling.
Obviously, swimming is my strength, but I’m also good at fencing.
I remember seeing Norman Cook swimming in a pair of burgundy pants. I thought: ‘Wow, he looks great.’
I was always a very competitive little kid. I did swimming very competitively, downhill skiing very competitively. Everything was competition.
The brilliant thing about swimming is that, while you’re doing it, there’s nothing else you could be getting on with, like the ironing or sorting out the children. My mind goes into free-float mode; some of the best ideas for plots come into my head while I’m ploughing up and down the pool.
I vividly remember segregation – separate schools, sitting in the balcony at the movie theater, being barred from the public swimming pool.
I live three blocks away from the beach, so every day I walk down to the beach to run or go swimming. Hiking is a big one for me – so long as it’s something where I’m not thinking about working out, like in a contrived class or the gym.
I love cycling, running and swimming. In recent years I’ve competed regularly in triathlons, which means I don’t find the physical side of driving a struggle any more.
As a family, we were far too busy making mud pies and going to swimming galas, and mum was always working.
Ive met people of all abilities and all ages. The groups are split accordingly; advanced groups are made up of swimmers keen on longer distances, intermediates who use swimming as part of their exercise routine, while many of the beginners havent even tried front crawl before.
Swimming can be boring. To me, it’s like going on a treadmill.
Mental fitness is obviously important to being an astronaut, but so it physical fitness. For example, space walks are extremely physically demanding. We train for them in a giant swimming pool and we wear this suit that weighs about 300 pounds.
I’ve got to go out there and do a job and focus on swimming and do my own thing, and I think us athletes can go out there and perform no matter what… This is what we train to do.
A good vacation for me is going to warm weather. Being able to go outside, in the sun, hit the beach, play outside sports. Being active outside. Going swimming, hanging by the pool, having a couple drinks, having a couple of your close buddies around, and just having a blast.
I work out four hours a day – I do a lot of swimming, dancing, and gymming.
When I was in my 20s, I thought that being known for ‘Swimming Pool’ was kind of a burden. Like, ‘OK, everyone thinks I am this tanned bimbo,’ and I was having problems coping with that image.
In ‘Swimming Pool,’ all the colors are very warm, sunny, the pool and all that. In ‘Love Crime,’ everything is so cold, and it’s all inside skyscrapers.
I love being outdoors – hiking, biking, and swimming.
What keeps me going is that this I all there is. I am a comedian, and this is what I do. It’s like telling a fish to stop swimming. It’ll die.
Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement – and we will make the goal.
I wasn’t a happy kid. I felt like my mum ruined our chance of a better life, because when she remarried, we went to live in Bahrain, on a compound with a swimming pool, and she ruined it all.
When we were very, very young, I was actually better than Cate was at swimming, and I was not very humble and thought I was the greatest thing ever and rubbed it in her face a bit, and then she started trying really hard and started beating me.
I thought of America as Natalie Wood and Bob Wagner sprawled on the edge of a Hollywood swimming pool biting into the same red apple.
On my days off, I like to be outdoors – on my bike or walking the dog or swimming – so it’s important anyone I date is also into fitness.
I used to go swimming and passed the tennis courts every day, and that’s how it started. My mum said, ‘Why don’t you play tennis in your summer holidays because you have nothing to do except swim for an hour or whatever?,’ and that’s how I started playing.
I started swimming when I was four because my brother wanted to join a swim team, and I wanted to do what he did. They said I had to be six, but if I could swim a lap, then I could participate. So I swam a lap, and the rest is history.
I have been able to buy a house with a swimming pool and everything we do now is completely transformed compared to what it was like when I was an electrician.
If I could get any animal it would be a dolphin. I want one so bad. Me and my mom went swimming with dolphins and I was like, ‘How do we get one of those?’ and she was like, ‘You can’t get a dolphin. What are you gonna do, like, put it in your pool?’
With swimming, I burn a lot of calories. I’m able to eat pretty much anything and it won’t affect me. But I don’t.
I like running and swimming, and exercise four or five times a week, but not for long – about 30 minutes. I just exercise by myself and find that as I get older it becomes easier. In school I remember not enjoying running at all.
I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.
I rode 300 miles through the forest and ate all sorts of strange food. And every time ‘Torak’ did something new, like swimming with killer whales or kayaking, I thought I’d better go and do it.
