Elite Swimming Academy
Multiple locations across Cambridge,
info@eliteswimmingacademy.co.uk
www.eliteswimmingacademy.co.uk
In 2006, when he was only 19, Ed Williams swam the English Channel for the first time – one of the youngest people ever to accomplish this feat. Resilience and determination saw him through a hugely challenging marathon swim but what he didn’t know then was that on the back of that swim he and his wife Rebecca would set up a company destined to become one of the most successful independent swim schools in the country.
Ed’s a local lad, born in Kimbolton, and he’s stayed close to his roots. He started very simply: just him in the water doing a few lessons at Quy Mill Hotel, but from those humble beginnings grew a company that now employs 30 people and teaches over 1,500 children per week. With only three children in a class, and maximum two classes in the pool, that’s a lot of swimming pools to coordinate!
Covid could have been devastating for Ed and Rebecca. Their swimming pools closed for 18 months but instead of emerging with fewer customers, as they’d feared, they emerged with many more. With typical courage, they put the last of their savings into the complete redevelopment of a derelict outdoor swimming pool in Trumpington which they transformed into a state-of-the-art indoor facility. Last year they won Cambridgeshire Live’s Small Business of the Year award at Kings College Cambridge and found themselves sharing the stage with global giant Astra Zeneca. Not bad for a local lad.
Ed’s not arrogant but when pushed would describe Elite Swimming Academy as the 5* hotel of the swimming world. It’s a premium service but your children are worth it. Their immersive experience with an inspirational teacher in very small, very tailored classes in a private pool ensure that they learn to swim a lot better and quicker than you would think possible. And who wouldn’t want to be taught at a swim school established by a person who’s conquered the Irish Channel (the Everest of marathon swimming), hung out with dolphins while swimming from Europe to Africa, and in the process raised over £100k for charity?