Problem before swimming season

One in ten young people can no longer swim

The Red Cross tries to start with the very youngest children in kindergarten and teach them how to swim.

(Bild: OÖJRK/Kat Art Fotografie)

Not finding your way in the water can end badly and even fatally. But more and more people in Austria can no longer swim. According to statistics, one in ten people aged between five and 19 is affected. Bad omens ahead of the approaching swimming peak with the vacations.

"Every child should be able to swim. Swimming is a life skill, and swimming lessons help to save lives," says Michael Heilbrunner, regional swimming officer at the Upper Austrian Youth Red Cross. Especially now, just before the peak of the swimming season and the start of the vacations, it is important to find your way in the water. But more and more people are having problems with this.

Three-year-old boy resuscitated
According to the Austrian Road Safety Board, one in ten people between the ages of five and 19 cannot swim. The case last weekend showed just how quickly you can sink. In Linz's outdoor children's pool in Wimhölzelstraße, a lifeguard became a lifesaver for a three-year-old boy and had to resuscitate him.

Age-appropriate learning materials
According to statistics, between 22 and 47 people drown in Austria every year. Children from the age of five have the motor skills to swim properly. That's why the Red Cross provides age-appropriate teaching materials from this age group onwards.

Last school year, 7943 children and young people in Upper Austria received a swimming badge with the Red Cross Youth, and 1343 people underwent lifeguard training. Dedicated teachers and students will also be trained as rescuers during the first week of the coming vacations.