Down Syndrome athletes make lifelong friends as Electric Eels visit Ireland

Electric Eels swimming club’s artistic swimming squad have returned home from a memorable trip to Ireland where they met up with the Irish Down Syndrome team.

Six swimmers went on the four-day trip which helped break down barriers, bring the two teams closer together and make friends that could last a lifetime.

The Eels squad is the only club in the country to take young people with down syndrome from complete beginners to offering both swimming and artistic swimming at a competitive level, whilst the Trimm Irish team recently made up the first Irish artistic swimming squad at a Down Syndrome European Championships last summer.

They stayed at Clongowes Wood College boarding school where they split the swimmers into small groups of similar ability and allowed them to choose their own music and plan their routines.

It all built to a performance in front of the school’s staff at the end of the trip which provided a wonderful moment for the two teams to get the opportunity to swim alongside one another.

Away from the pool, the swimmers enjoyed lots of downtime, including a makeup session, a disco and some Irish dancing lessons from their new found friends.

“This is my 39^th year in disability swimming and to see the joy on the swimmers faces means the world,” said Pauline Walker – Electric Eels’ Director of Swimming.

“It was just great to watch them all. There was just so much benefit for all of them and the trip couldn’t have gone any better.

“Ten years ago I was in Mexico with the Great Britain Down Syndrome Swimming Team and I met Liz Murray and her husband Tom who were aware of my dream of starting an artistic swimming team for people with down syndrome. They wondered that once we got everything set up that if I could support them in doing the same in Ireland one day.

“It took some time but that dream has finally became a reality and it was just great to watch them all bond and make friends that could last a lifetime.”

“We do it for the fun”

Since starting their artistic swimming programme, Electric Eels have represented Great Britain at both the European and World Down Syndrome Championships. They’ve returned with medals from both the 2018 worlds in Canada and 2016 Championship in Italy as well as the European Championships in Paris back in 2017.

They were also named Swim England Club of the Year at the Swim England National Awards in 2018 with their success down to their willingness of letting swimmers learn at their own pace and simply enjoy being in the water.

And it’s the fun what’s most important to Pauline and the team who are hopeful of making this a yearly event.

“We try to have a lot of fun because that’s really important. That’s all that we do it for and that’s why I love it so much.

“All of the swimmers had such an amazing time in Ireland and they all became so close by the end of it that there were some tears when it was our time to leave.

“As we’re the only club that’s does this, some of our swimmers travel a long way to be a part of it so I think just to be able to connect them with more people is so important.

“Since we got back everyone has asked if we can make this a yearly event with them hopefully coming over to England in the future too. In fact we’ve already booked for next year!

“Some of them have families that live in this country already too so we’ve invited them to stop by and train with us whenever they next visit and help us continue to spread this community.”

For more information on how to get involved with Electric Eels, visit electriceels.org.uk.