About us

The Sharks Swimming Club is a competitive swimming affiliated to Swim England (formerly the Amateur Swimming Association, the ASA). It is unique in its structure, offering swimmers with disabilities the opportunity to improve, train and compete at a local, regional, national and international levels.

The club is also very proud of its swimmers who have taken on training courses and progressed into teaching and coaching club members.

At present, Sharks offers training to develop stroke technique and stamina to enable swimmers to compete in galas from junior through to masters.

It is the policy of the club that all staff hold ASA qualifications and are DBS checked.

Our mission

The primary objectives of The Sharks Swimming Club are

  • to provide a safe environment for all swimmers who may have a classifiable physical, visual or learning disability;
  • to provide a structured training programme delivered by appropriately qualified personnel;
  • to allow each swimmer to fulfil their own potential using primarily the National Plan for Teaching Swimming (NPTS) and Long Term Athlete Development (LAPTD).

Our history

The club was formed in 1982 by six physically disabled young men who wished to train in order to compete in the Paralymics: Alper Ali, Gordon Crowe, Wayne Lovegrove, Noel McTigue, Stephen Syndercombe and Brian Wright. In 1984, Gordon Crowe and Alper Ali returned from the Paralymics Summer Games in New York, with a silver and bronze medal, respectively, with Brian Wright having been a reserve for Team GB.

The club has grown and developed over the years from their initial endeavour and success, producing swimmers who represent Great Britain in international events worldwide.