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.

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.

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

Our vision and mission

Swimming is the only sport that is a fundamental life skill that could potentially save a life! Club members are swimmers, coaches, administrators, trustees, swim parents and a host of volunteers. We currently have over 1000 members across our swimming program and also support up to an additional 500 non-members each year through our community aquatics programs.

Our Athlete Centred, Coach Led and Member Supported philosophy aims to ensure that all stakeholders have a safe environment and positive experience to fall in love with the sport of swimming for a lifetime.

The club provides clear pathways that allow each person to enjoy swimming so that it develops into a lifelong love affair. The benefits of swimming are multi-faceted and something that at Winchester we try and develop along the swimmer’s individual journey.

The competitive arm of our club has no age limit and is carefully designed by our team of professional coaches to try and provide multiple pathways for swimmers of all abilities or commitment levels, a training squad to achieve their individual goals.

Our values

To ensure that everyone involved in the club is on the same page and working towards the same goals we have some core club values. These help us create a positive culture and follow the Swim England Optimal Athlete Development Framework (OADF) model of developing the person, athlete, and performer. These values are what we want to see from all our swimmers.

The values that we stand for are:

• Performance
• Supportive
• Aspirational
• Inclusive
• Fun
• Progressive

We believe if everybody in our club lives these values, it will provide everybody with the best opportunity to become the best that they can be!

Our coaches and lessons teachers

Our coaches and teachers are passionate about swimming and helping children and their families fall in love with the sport. Our aim is to provide high-quality, professional, and nurturing environment that helps all swimmers of all abilities reach their full potential.

We want swimmers to develop amazing techniques and skills, a hard work ethic, become great people and teammates, make lifelong friendships, and most importantly, enjoy their time in an enjoyable, positive, and safe environment.

Our famous alumni

We have had many great swimmers swim in our program over the years and we aim to continually provide the best training environment and provide opportunities for many more swimmers over the years.

Julia Beckett

Julia was a member of Winchester Penguins Swimming Club from the age of 8 and was first selected to represent Great Britain at the age of 14 and was a member of the Great Britain swimming team for 6 years. Julia became British Junior Champion in three events in 2003 and went on to compete at every major international meet. She won a Silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and a Bronze medal at the 2008 World Championships. She hung up her googles after competing at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

Kayla Van Der Merwe

Kayla represented Great Britain at the 2019 European Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia where she won a Gold medal in the 100m Breaststroke, and two Bronze medals in the 200m Breaststroke and 4 x 100 medley relay. She also swam at the 2019 World Junior Championships at Budapest, Hungary and won a Bronze medal in the 100m Breaststroke. Kayla went on to make her senior debut for Great Britain at the 2019 European Short Course Championships which were held in Glasgow, Scotland once again competing in the Breaststroke events and relays.

Imogen Clark

Imogen moved to Winchester in 2019 and was a specialist in sprint breaststroke. During her time at Winchester Imogen was selected to swim in the International Swimming League (ISL) for the Energy Standard and later LA Currant. During the ISL Imogen broke the British Record for the 50m SC 50m Breaststroke in a time of 29.32.

Lewis Burras

Lewis moved to Winchester in the Summer of 2021 and during his time training in Winchester, Lewis won the 50m & 100m Freestyle at the 2022 British Swimming Championships. This secured Lewis’s selection to swim for Great Britain at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships.

Along with our many partners, we are continually striving to add many more great swimmers to our list of alumni.