With the senator at the edge of the pool: This is where you practice exhaling underwater Photo: Parvets
By Sara Orlos Fernandes
Almost a quarter (24 percent) of Berlin schoolchildren cannot swim. In order to counteract the non-swimmer quota, there are intensive swimming courses during the holidays. Here seahorses and co. are caught up.
At the edge of the pool, Julien (9), Delvin (11) and David (10) take turns carefully dipping their ears into the water. Then they blow air bubbles into the pool with their nose at full force. The non-swimmer course starts with getting used to the water. In small groups, the children learn their first movements in the water in 45 minutes five days a week during the holidays and lose their fear of the deep pool.
Vedi (11) wants to catch up with her seahorse Photo: Parvets
About half to two-thirds make a seahorse afterwards. For others it takes a little longer.
“Newly arrived children who have fled the area often have their first contact with water here,” says swimming coach Daniela von Hoerschelmann. That’s why not only third-graders who couldn’t get a badge in school swimming lessons attend their course, but also significantly older children and young people.
Swimming trainer Daniela von Hoerschelmann oversees the intensive swimming courses in the combined swimming pool in Gropiusstadt. In the future, she will also support teachers during swimming school lessons Photo: Parvets
Thanks to the sports senate’s intensive swimming courses, the non-swimmer rate was reduced from 37 percent (2022) to 24 percent (2023). Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (40) speaks of “a catastrophe” when it comes to the non-swimmer quota of the past year. But she is confident about the future:
Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (40) attended one of the intensive swimming courses in the combined swimming pool in Gropiusstadt on Tuesday Photo: Parvets
“This shows how useful the intensive swimming courses are. But the goal must be to get to zero percent,” says Günther-Wünsch, who will continue to finance the courses in cooperation with the State Sports Association (LSB) and the Berlin Sports Youth for the coming year.