Some of the members of Tuam Swimming Club. Photo: Ray Ryan

A club where everyone’s on the one winning team

INCLUSIVENESS is what Tuam Swimming Club is all about. It is one of the few remaining swim clubs where coaches aren’t paid, everything is done on a voluntary basis and it’s pretty unusual in that everyone, of all ages and levels, gets along.
The club has developed enormously since it was first founded in 1950 when members trained in the cool and swirling waters of the Clare River. Tuam didn’t get its first swimming pool until the early 1970s and since then the Tuam club has continued to support its retention and redevelopment.
There are now close to 200 members in the club with children and teenagers coming from a wide catchment area including Athenry, Headford, Annaghdown and Dunmore as well as Tuam.
It takes determination, commitment and most of all a love for a sport to train as hard, as often and as early in the morning as the club’s top swimmers do.
While most of us are counting sheep, these admirable teens have arrived at the pool and are swimming hundreds of metres from 6.30 in the morning.

Read the full feature in this week's edition