about us

Learn more about Winchester City Swimming Club

We are Charitable Incorporated Organisation (the “CIO”) formally registered as Winchester City Penguins Swimming Club. Our working name is Winchester City Swimming Club. As a registered  charity (No. 1153439) we create opportunities through swimming. We have been teaching people in Winchester to swim since 1901 and have been at the heart of creating swimming opportunities ever since.

Swimming offers so many benefits. Firstly, it is a life skill and being a competent swimmer can save a life. Swimming also is proven to improve health, stamina and strength and offers is a great way of meeting new people and making lifelong friends. As with all sports the more you put into the sport, the more you will get out of it.

Winchester City Swimming Club has a long and proud history and is one of the biggest clubs in the South of England. We recently moved into our new 50m facility and since then been home to some high-level swimmers. Our former swimmers Lewis Burras & Imogen Clark recently competed in the Commonwealth Games for Team England and we were also home to members of Team Fiji & Team Tonga in the build-up to the Commonwealth Games.

We compete in a range of local and regional competitions including the Premier Division of the National Arena League – the highest tier of competition in the UK. We offer squad swimming for junior swimmers, right through to Masters and have performance swimmers who represented the club at the 2018 British, English, Scottish and Welsh Swimming Championships.

We run a thriving Learn to Swim Programme focused on providing the highest quality swimming lessons possible to ensure that young people develop water confidence, as well as excellent stroke technique. We operate under the ASA stages pathway, and swimmers can progress into WCSC Squads, or are directed to other aquatic pathways locally.

PERFORMANCE

 

SUPPORTIVE

 

FUN

ASPIRATIONAL

 

INCLUSIVE

 

PROGRESSIVE

In 2021, Winchester Sports & Leisure Park opened and is now our spiritual home that provides first class facilities including a 50m pool where most of our performance training takes place. Our former swimmers Lewis Burras & Imogen Clark recently competed in the Commonwealth Games for Team England and we were also home to members of Team Fiji & Team Tonga in the build-up to the Commonwealth Games.  We also now run our own short course and long course swimming meets where we aim to provide a high quality experience for all competitors.

Winchester Sports & Leisure Park

We are not all about performance swimming and we do believe that sport is all about individual achievements and being the best that you can be. We are an inclusive and welcoming club and strive to people from all backgrounds and desires.

As a Swim Essentials accredited club we are recognised as having high standards of governance and operation. We are governed by a board of elected Trustees with day to day running driven by a dedicated management team, and supported by a huge number of volunteers who ensure we can offer a broad range of provision. We operate from four pools situated in and around Winchester:

  • Winchester Sports & Leisure Park -  where the majority of our performance swimming programme and some of our development swimming programme is run
  • King’s School - where the majority of our lessons programmes are run along with our development swimming squads
  • Oaklands Community Pool - additional lessons programmes
  • St John Moore Barracks (ATR) - additional squad training sessions