Graduate enterprise launches second year of Marathon swims

Marathon Swims 2018, the ultimate swimming challenge, launches today. Swimming now has its own marathon. Marathon Swims returns to the iconic London Aquatics Centre, home of swimming during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, on 10^th and 11^th November 2018.

Marathon Swims sold out in its first year, and organisers expect it to do so again in record time. This year the event has added an extra day to give participants a choice of race days and increase capacity due to the expected high demand.

The swimming marathon distance first came to prominence as a 10k open water event at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. The marathon swim has been a key spectacle in the Olympic schedule ever since with spectacular races in the Serpentine (London 2012) and at Copacabana Beach (Rio 2016). Marathon Swims has redefined the challenge as an indoor, pool-based Marathon 10k, Half Marathon 5k and a 1k Challenge distance event. 

Marathon Swims has an innovative format that delivers instant, reliable results, and enhances the event experience for spectators and participants.  Founding event partners Better and Cancer Research UK have renewed their partnerships, along with new partners swimming holiday provider, Swim Quest. 

Diccon Loy, Sport Business and Innovation student at Loughborough University London and Marathon Swims founder stated

We have been delighted at the response and interest in Marathon Swims. To engage such great partners and sell out in our first year proved to us that swimming as a sport has great potential for growth and development. We set out to create an experience and challenge like no other in the pool. We wanted to deliver the same sense of occasion and challenge as the London Marathon delivers for runners. Swimming now has its own marathon and we’re excited about the prospects of developing a national series of events.

Andrew Clark, Head of Swimming for London Aquatics Centre’s operator Better stated

We are a proud founding partner of the Marathon Swims event and delighted to support the event for its second year. At Better, we have delivered an innovative approach to operations at London Aquatics Centre and at over 250 other public leisure centres. Marathon Swims is an extension of this innovation, having the opportunity to take part in this fantastic event will provide motivation for our customers to swim more, train and improve in readiness for a significant challenge, and support our aim to improve the health and well being of the local communities we work in.

Entries to Marathon Swims: London are now open and expected to sell out before event day. Other Marathon Swims events are set to launch later in the year.

For more information contact info@marathonswims.com

@MarathonSwims

Notes to Editors:

About Marathon Swims:

Marathon Swims is a global series of swimming challenge events in the world’s most iconic swimming arenas.  The first event in the series was the London event, Saturday 11 November 2017. The event returns as a two-day event 10 and 11 November 2018.

About the London Aquatic Centre:

London Aquatics Centre is situated in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, London.  Part of the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic venues, was that they opened after the Games to be vibrant, well-used spaces for the local community. The London Aquatics Centre opened to the public on 1st March 2014 and has since welcomed over 2million visitors. The world-class facilities, including two 50 meter pools, 25 metre diving pool and diving facilities, are open for the public to use, as is our state-of-the-art gym and fitness facility. Every week, more than 3,500 children and adults learn to swim with us and more than 600 people learn to dive.

About GLL/Better:

GLL/Better was founded in 1993 as a charitable social enterprise with seven leisure centres in Greenwich.  In 1996 the social enterprise started expanding outside of the London Borough of Greenwich and now runs all kinds of community services and spaces across the UK.  Now renamed Better, over 250 public sport and leisure centres and 57 libraries are managed in partnership with more than 30 local councils, public agencies and sporting organisations.  Membership to the organisations’ centres has increased to over 650,000 with 40 million visitors a year.

About Participation Sport Ltd.:

Participation Sport Ltd. is the company behind Marathon Swims.  The Participation Sport team have over 15 years’ experience in delivering world class mass participation sports events.