“Well, I say “lessons”. What actually happened was I stood with five other kids in the shallow end and we messed about with battered polystyrene floats. Meanwhile, the rest of the class swam confidently up and down, smiling and having fun.”

Since then he hasn’t been able to face getting back in the water and learning to swim. Even in his 40s when he decided to give it another go with one-to-one lessons, he ended up taking the cowards way out and quitting. But towards the end of last year after speaking to a friend who works for Sport Relief, he decided he finally had to face his demons. “They (Walliams and Izzard) are truly amazing, but no one’s likely to emulate them,” reckons Skinner.

“You should get someone to take on their own personal little mountain, the sort of mountain that lots of people might climb if they could be inspired to do so.” Tonight Frank Skinner faces his mountain – in the form of a swimming pool deep end – when he attempts to swim an entire length for Sport Relief. Make donations to Sport Relief with a credit or debit card by phone via 03457 910910 or online at sportrelief.com

Tonight’s (23/3/12) Sport Relief line up in full

BBC1

3:05pm The Big Sport Relief Warm-Up CBBC offers bite-size reminders of challenges past, including David Walliams’s Big Swim (3:10pm), Helen’s Polar Challenge for Sport Relief (3:45pm) and Million Pound Bike Ride (4:20pm).

5:15 Sport Relief Does Glee Club The three remaining acts vie for the viewers’ vote in the grand final of the competition.

7:00 Sport Relief 2012 Celebrities including John Bishop, James Corden, Gary Lineker and Claudia Winkleman take it in turns to host the evening, which kicks off with Chelsea footballer Frank Lampard and fiancée Christine Bleakley guest-starring in a special episode of Outnumbered. Strictly Come Dancing finalists Harry Judd and Chelsee Healey leave the dancefloor behind for an incredible underwater challenge.

7:30 Boxer Amir Khan and footballer Jermain Defoe boost their knowledge with a little help from Stephen Fry and the Horrible Histories cast, and the Strictly Come Dancing challenge continues.

8:00 Comic Frank Skinner faces his fear and attempts to swim a length of the pool at Langley Swimming Centre, while Miranda Hart ropes in some sports stars for a sketch at the Royal Albert Hall. Plus David Walliams, who undertook an epic swim down the Thames, is in the studio.

9:00 What horrors await Simon Cowell, Alesha Dixon and Ant and Dec as Benidorm meets Britain’s Got Talent? Snow Patrol perform in the studio.

9:30 Members of the England football team don aprons and join chef James Martin in the kitchen. JLS perform the Sport Relief single, Proud.

BBC2

10pm The cast of Twenty Twelve welcome some VIPs in the shape of Zara Phillips and Sir Steve Redgrave. There’s a special instalment of QI and Jake Humphrey hosts Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Plus Helen Skelton, who made a record-breaking expedition to the Antarctic, is in the studio.

BBC1

10:35pm Fashionistas Kate Moss and Stella McCartney, along with sportsmen Colin Jackson and Linford Christie, join Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley for what promises to be a fun-packed Ab Fab sketch. Plus a chance to see A Question of Sport host Sue Barker as you’ve never seen her before!

11:00 Freddie Flintoff continues his attempt to break multiple world records live in the studio, Emeli Sande performs live, and there are special editions of Celebrity Juice and Eight out of Ten Cats.

12 midnight JLS invite a chorus of rugby internationals to join them for a singsong. Misery Bear and Mo Farah race against each other and there’s a special Mock the Week.

All timings from 7:30pm are approximate

Frank Skinner’s faces his fear for Sport Relief..

And Strictly goes underwater for Sport Relief…

Via TV Scoop

Via TV Scoop

Next month marks one of the biggest events in the swimming calendar. The British Gas Swimming Championships 2012 will determine who will secure a place on the GB Team for this year’s London Olympics.

Held at the London Aquatics Centre, the venue for this year’s Olympic swimming events, it will be the first opportunity that our finest swimmers will have had to race in the stunning Olympic pool. It will also be the first chance for many spectators to visit the Olympic grounds in Stratford, East London!

Among those competing will be household names like Rebecca Adlington, Liam Tancock and Ellie Simmonds.  And what’s more Goggleblog has three tickets (two adults, one concession ticket for over 60s or under 16s) to give away for the completely SOLD OUT final day (March 10th) when you can see the Mens and Women’s Freestyle semi-finals and finals*.

To be in with a chance of winning all you need to do is head over to Goggleblog’s Facebook page and answer the following question either by posting on our wall or leaving a comment on the post. (You must ‘like’ our Facebook page to be considered for the winning tickets).

Where is the best place you have swum in the UK and why?

The winner will be decided on March 1st by the editor of Goggleblog.

* March 10th schedule:

SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
50m Free-W-F
1500m Free-M-F
1500m Free-M-F

For more information visit the British Gas Swimming Championships trials website.

A festive swimmer with the Outdoor Swimming Society's Kate Rew (left) and Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman (right)

On Saturday I went for the traditional Christmas dip with the wonderful folk from the Outdoor Swimming Society. It was great fun, though I’m not sure I’d do it again without proper preparation – or a wetsuit. To swim in very cold water (it was 8 degrees C) ideally requires a certain amount of body fat (which I haven’t got). And a week of cold showers in advance probably wouldn’t have gone amiss either! Plus I had a bit of a sniffle and a cough. In short I didn’t feel 100 per cent.

So when I had to sign an insurance waiver saying if I died of a heart attack it was my own stoopid fault and the most I could expect would be that they would fish my Speedo-clad corpse out of North London’s Parliament Hill Lido, I did fear the worst. What I figured though is that I was best trying to get used to the cold temperature before diving into the water for the 12 o’clock race to the other end of the pool and back. So I gingerly skirted round the edges of the lido, dipping my toes in, until I plucked up enough courage to get in the water.

A brass band played Christmas Carols as we swam (or attempted to). A lovely way to get into the festive spirit

What I didn’t expect was that my breath would be completely taken away seconds after lowering myself into the water. There was no possible way I could exhale and the feeling was, if not quite terrifying, not exactly pleasant. So after about 15 yards I swam to the steps and tried to warm up before trying again.

Second time round was much better, I felt I could control my breath a little easier but the ‘brain freeze’, what’s sometimes called an ice cream headache, was more than I could bear. I know from previous experience swimming in the Lake District this is one of the first signs of hypothermia and was probably how the Titanic victims felt in the few minutes they had before expiring in the Atlantic!

Anyway, I managed about 30 yards and was ready for the 12 o’clock ‘wave’, though I was still shivering quite badly – so much so that the tinsel-trunk wearing swimmer in the picture above suggested I should think about throwing in the towel or whatever the swimming equivalent is (taking off your goggles?). In the end though I was fine. I dived in no problem and was starting to getting used to it when I decided to err on the side of caution and head off for a warm shower after swimming a 25m width.

So what did I learn from the experience? That I am not so hardy as I thought (one bloke swam about 40 lengths in just Speedos and he looked totally calm). And that you can’t beat a nice cup of tea and a mince pie after a cold dip! Also I learned that it’s really not possible to have enough clothes or enough heat in the car to warm yourself up afterwards.

DJ Edith Bowman gets proceedings under way

And while I’m not sure about the whole extreme swimming thing (I was reminded on several occasions that it was just 1 degree last year when they held the event – now that is cold) what I really like is the camaraderie. I love the way that swimming outdoors generally, but especially in challenging conditions like this, brings everyone together.

So thanks once again to the Outdoor Swimming Society for organising the event and getting my Christmas off to a bracing start!

Speedo sponsored swimmers, including Rebecca Adlington (centre), model the company's new Fastskin3 'racing system'

This morning Speedo launched its revolutionary new Fastskin3 swimming racing system which could see world records tumble at next year’s London 2012 Olympics.

Designed around the athlete from head to toe, the system’s cap, goggles and suit have been developed to work in harmony as a complete package.

As a result, Speedo claims, Fastskin3 helps the athlete cut through the water with maximum efficiency, reducing passive drag by up to 16.6 per cent and delivering an 11 per cent improvement in oxygen economy.

Highlights include a cap with a ‘hair management’ system to make female swimmers more hydrodynamic in the water and a space-aged looking pair of goggles offering much wider peripheral vision and three interchangeable nose bridges for optimum fit.

Developed in conjunction with with some of the world’s leading athletes, The Speedo Fastskin3 Super Elite Swimsuit incorporates an innovative 3D Zoned Compression fabric system throughout, sculpting the swimmer’s body to create the most efficient and hydrodynamic swimming shape in the water, reducing skin friction drag by up to 2.7%.

Becky Adlington sports the new Speedo Fastskin 3 racing system

The system also incorporates revolutionary Hydro K-Zone 3D fabric which, Speedo claims, provides high power, graduated compression throughout, helping to achieve the optimum hydrodynamic profile. This is complemented by Pulse-Flex Fabric used on the shoulders and panels, offering high stretch in one direction to couple freedom of movement with powerful compression.

A ‘Body Stability Web’ constant seam framework gives greater stability, improving stroke and enhancing the effectiveness of starts and turns by up to 3%, while an IQ FIT ‘snap back’ waistband on the male jammer, eliminates the need for drawstrings and ensures a flatter, more efficient profile.

For female suits, Speedo has developed a unique Armhole Entry system making it easier to put on while maintaining the best possible fit and maximum fabric coverage, optimising the suit’s hydrodynamic properties.

Press at the event at the Tramshed in London’s trendy Shoreditch were treated to a fashion show during which models and dancers performed various swimming related dance routines before the Speedo sponsored swimmers were presented wearing the new Fastskin3 gear.

Says Olympic gold medal winner Rebecca Adlington who was the main swimming star of the show:

“The new Fastskin feels so good, it feels very comfortable. I’ve never seen all three items (cap, goggles and swimsuit) designed together like this. You don’t get as much drag when you put them together in one like this.”

The new Speedo Fastskin 3 system goes on sale exclusively on Speedo.com from tomorrow and will be widely available from the beginning of January 2012.

You can see a full set of pictures from the event here.

YouTube video: Dancers at the Tramshed, Shoreditch perform swimming inspired routines at the launch of Speedo’s Fastskin3.

Speedo Fastskin3 available from November 30 or you could win one via Speedo's Facebook page

Speedo has launched an exclusive online competition for three passionate swimmers to become among the first in the world to experience its latest pioneering swimwear innovation – the Speedo FASTSKIN³.

Now open for entries at www.facebook.com/speedo, the worldwide competition offers the opportunity for three lucky winners to become one of the first to wear the Speedo FASTSKIN³.

They will follow in the strokes of swimming superstars including Michael Phelps (USA), Ryan Lochte (USA), Rebecca Adlington (GBR) and James Magnussen (AUS) who were the first to trial the groundbreaking competitive swimwear concept as part of the research and development process.

Being unveiled globally on November 30^th, Speedo FASTSKIN³ winners will attend the exclusive VIP launch event in London to witness the excitement first hand, where they will also have the chance to rub shoulders with elite athletes.

As part of the ultimate money can’t buy experience, following the launch event on November 30^th the three winners will be presented with their own Speedo FASTSKIN³ and learn more about the pioneering research and development behind the concept. Their individual experiences of the innovative Speedo FASTSKIN³ will be filmed in an exclusive poolside interview for the Speedo Facebook page to inspire other dedicated swimmers around the world.

The competition prize also includes two nights’ hotel accommodation and dinner for each winner and their guest in London on November 29 and November 30 plus the winners will receive £500 worth of vouchers each to spend at Speedo’s flagship store in Covent Garden.

For a chance to win this fantastic prize, entrants are invited to submit a personal video explaining why they should enjoy this amazing opportunity to be among the first to try the Speedo FASTSKIN³ and demonstrating their commitment to and passion for swimming.

The closing date for entries is 20 November at 6pm GMT and winners will be notified by 23 November 2011. For more information visit www.facebook.com/speedo

See the YouTube Speedo Fastskin3 teaser video below:

Ian Thorpe after finishing his comeback race in Singapore. He came second in his 100IM heat.

I once had the pleasure of seeing Ian Thorpe, the ‘Thorpedo’, swimming at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. To use modern parlance, he ‘smashed it’. He was the biggest swimmer I’ve ever seen and he looked so completely effortless in the water – almost like he wasn’t trying. But he still managed to scoop six Golds and one silver medal including a world record in the 400m freestyle. Astonishing.

Lots has been written about the motives for his comeback. About his personal life, about his business interests, but ultimately I think Ian Thorpe just wants to see if he can still compete at the highest level. While I suspect he can’t, I am seriously hoping he can. After all he is still only 29 years old and in my opinion is a completely natural swimmer. Naively perhaps, I’d like to think that his natural skill in the water, and his astonishing physique (6 feet 7inches, size 17 feet), counts for something in an age where instense training has become everything.

And while today’s comeback swim in Singapore was perhaps less than amazing (second in his 100m IM heats in 56.74 secs, sixth fastest time for the finals) it wasn’t terrible. After all the 100m IM is an event he hasn’t competed in since he was 12 and he admitted that it was less than perfect. “I can’t remember the race at all. I remember starting and touching the wall. So I think there’s probably a lot of things I can do better in the final. But I’m happy. I’m really happy to get the first one out of the way. Now I’m able to focus on improving my swimming, rather than getting my first race back.”

There’s still plenty of room for improvement, of course, but if anyone can do it I think Ian Thorpe can. He may talk about expecting to fail, about not wanting to compete, but secretly I think he still wants to win. Let’s hope he is given the opportunity to compete in the London 2012 Olympics and complete the fairytale comeback that he is capable of.

Olympic and World Champion Freestyle swimmer Rebecca Adlington

Goggleblog talks to Olympic and World swimming champion Rebecca Adlington about her 800m freestyle victory in Shanghai, her prospects for London 2012 and her love of chocolate!

Goggleblog – First of all congratulations on your 800m freestyle victory in the World Championships in Shanghai. That was some race! Where on earth did you get the push for that last 50m?

Rebecca – I haven’t watched it yet. But I felt in control a lot of the way. I could see where she (Danish swimmer Lotte Friis) was – it was good that she was in the next lane and I kept breathing that way so I could keep an eye on her. The last 50m all I kept thinking about was my holiday to be honest. I was just like ‘I’ve finished after this, just give it that extra bit of push. Just put your head down and go. It was as simple as that.’

A lot of it must be about sheer mental determination?

Yes physically we were tired and both in the same situation. Your shoulders are hurting, your arms are hurting. You are going max for an awfully long time and your body is struggling. It’s just a case of literally doing as much as you can. All I kept thinking was ‘come on, give it everything, it’s your last race.’ I think she probably had a different mind set to me because she was winning for most of the race and probably thought she was going to win.

It must have been a relief to get a gold after the relative disappointment of the previous World Championships in Rome in 2009?

Obviously I got two bronze medals last time, so I was so glad to better that to show that I’m improving and getting better. It was a tough week in general – the 400m was a tough race, but I managed to get into the 800m. It’s nice because it’s given me a lot of confidence going into next year.

So tell me about how you got involved in Cadbury’s Minute to Win It campaign?

Obviously Cadbury’s are an Olympic sponsor and I love their chocolate! It’s such a good one because they are so passionate about playing games and being competitive which I know all about. It’s about playing games for just a minute every day. I think everybody is so busy in their working life they sometimes forget that you’ve got to have a little bit of fun on the side as well. The good thing is that these games are really simple – you don’t have to buy anything for the computer or games console.

Are you a competitive person in everything you do?

Yes without a doubt. I love playing games, but I’m not a sore loser. If I lose I’m not going to go off in a strop or anything like that. But I am competitive and I do want to do well. Even with small games ‘I’m like right, focus’. One of the games involves getting plastic ducks and flicking them behind your head into a pool – that was so much fun. The first two goes I was awful, then I proper got into it and did really well in the end!

Rebecca in the pool

Being a swimmer don’t you have to watch your diet? I can’t imagine you would be allowed to eat too much chocolate would you?

Well we have to eat quite a lot. We have to make sure we are getting all the vitamins, all the carbohydrates, all the protein, all the iron, everything. I always have treats because we are working so hard and burning so much off that sometimes the best thing for you is to have a chocolate bar to get your glucose levels back up.

I’ve read so many interviews with you about your training regime, especially all those early starts. How do you keep doing that year after year. Is it that you are so competitive and want to stay at the top?

It’s about doing something you genuinely love. I’m sure it happens with any other job in the world as well. Like you might have to travel which you wouldn’t necessarily want to do all the time, but because you love your job you just do it. I’ve never snoozed my alarm in my whole entire life. I get straight out of bed, I want to do this. I don’t find I have to sacrifice anything, I don’t find it a chore – I just want to do it. It doesn’t get that boring. I think people think that I just get in the pool on my own and swim up and down every day. But I don’t. I have a team, I have a club, I have a coach. I have stuff to make it interesting – you don’t do the same thing every day. We change the intensity, the length of what we do all the time. It’s always good fun. I have a great team and a great coach that always make it good fun.

Your coach (Bill Furniss) has been with you a long time hasn’t he? What age did you get into swimming?

Yeah he has been my coach since 13. I learned to swim about 4, joined a club at 8 and from then it’s been non-stop.

And what about your ambitions for the 2012 Olympics? You must be hoping to come away with two golds musn’t you?

I’ve not qualified yet. I don’t qualify until March – that’s if I do qualify. So to be honest I’m not even thinking about it yet.

To find out more about Cadbury’s Spots v Stripes Minute To Win It go to www.spotsvstripes.com. Here you can find out more and play the Minute To Win It games.

You can read the interview with Rebecca’s coach Bill Furniss here.

You can see the video interview with Rebecca Adlington below:

Members of a synchronised swimming team form the shape of a number "1" to mark the one year countdown to the start of the London 2012 in the Aquatics Centre

With exactly one year to go until the London 2012 Olympics the Aquatics Centre has been unveiled.

Costing £269 million, the Zaha Hadid designed building is undoubtedly impressive, but then so it should be given the original budget was a more modest £75 million.

I only hope that at some point I get to at least sit in the 17,000 seater stadium (thanks to the shambolic lottery system I failed, like most people, to get Olympics swimming tickets). And that after the Olympics the pool is fully open for the public to swim in and not turned into some sort of water-based theme park like has happened in Beijing.

I remember swimming in the Olympic swimming pools in the Montjuic Stadium, Barcelona a few years back (both indoors and outdoors) and thoroughly enjoying it.

However, I seem to recall the outdoor diving boards are no longer in use – diving it seems has fallen foul of the dreaded health and safety brigade with fewer diving pools in existence now than ever before, even in Spain it seems.

Amazingly, though we can still produce diving champions. You can see Tom Daley ‘christen’ the pool so to speak with this dive, afterwards describing the water as, er, ‘cold’. Thanks for that insight, Tom. Personally Peter Kay bombing off the top board – like in the John Smith’s advert – may have been more appropriate, certainly funnier, but maybe they thought that wouldn’t be quite so fitting for such a prestigious occasion.

Speedo Aquacoach: This new swimming computer watch will work out how many laps you've done and how many strokes per lap

Want to work out how far or how well you are swimming? Until recently you had to remember how many lengths you’d swum and how long it took just to be able to get this basic information.

But if, like me, your mind wanders when you swim, trying to recall how many lengths you have done is tricky – let alone how many strokes per length, which is the usual measurement of swimming efficiency.

Thankfully, there are now swimming gadgets which will do this for you. Swimovate introduced an automated swimming watch over a year ago. Now Speedo has followed suit with its own neat looking watch.

Dubbed the Speedo Aquacoach, it automatically tracks lengths, distance, speed, calories burned as well as the number of strokes per length. Unlike earlier models it works, we understand, by detecting a break in stroke pattern when you turn around in the pool – hence it isn’t designed for open water swimmers (they would probably require a watch with a built in GPS).

It can also automatically detect how many times your hand enters the water during a length in order to calculate the number of strokes you make per length – the lower, the better. It will work with all strokes: front crawl, backstroke, breastroke and, even, butterfly.

Due out in July it will retail for £99 or 130 Euros. But Facebook users can win one here: http://www.facebook.com/speedo?sk=app_170464336338914

www.speedo.co.uk