Portsmouth legend Katy Sexton’s ‘massive’ fears for swimming due to the pandemic

Competing at an Olympics, winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal, becoming the first British swimmer to win a World Championship title and receiving an MBE - it's all been ticked off by one of the top sporting performers Portsmouth has ever produced.

But the former Springfield School pupil has genuine fears the generations to come might never get the chances afforded to her thanks to swimming.

As with a number of sports, the pandemic has placed a cloud over how things could look for the future of pools and participation.

Sexton, 38, now runs her own academy helping hundreds of children across the area in learning to swim.

Currently closed because of the third nationwide lockdown, the Portsmouth Northsea member is fearing for the future of the sport and her business.

Sexton said: ‘I just hope swimming survives this, really.

‘If places haven’t been making money, are they going to up the fees and costings of stuff?

‘If people haven’t been working, are they going to be able to afford that? It’s kind of a knock-on effect.

'It is massively (a concerning time) because if they all go (the pools) then it’s my business under.

‘I got into swimming in the first instance because we live by the sea and my parents wanted us to learn to swim so we could be safe, to understand water safety and all the rest of it.

‘I never knew that I’d go to the sort of extremes that I went to.

‘For me, being able to offer that service to our community, if I can’t do that it’ll be quite heartbreaking.

‘Pools are kind of an entity in themselves anyway and for us, knowing we use school pools and over the 10 years of being operable, we’ve seen three of them close.

‘It’s a case of what’s going to happen to the ones we’re currently using. Are they going to stay open?

‘There is that worry at the back of your mind as well because, again, that’s out of your control.'

After an incredible career, Sexton wanted to 'give something back' to a community that had helped her reach the sporting heights.

The academy plan became a reality in 2010 and her company was rebranded Katy Sexton Sport & Fitness four years ago.

Operating out of the pools at Mill Rythe Junior School, Hayling Island and Barncroft Primary, Havant, Sexton can teach between 200 to 300 children aged between three and 11 each week.

Admittedly, numbers have dwindled over the past year because of the pandemic, but Sexton says having a basic swimming knowledge is important for children - particularly in this area - and can provide them with opportunities for the future.

‘My job is mainly to facilitate the kids to swim and getting them to learn the basic skills,' Sexton explained.

‘I had some not fun experiences myself when I was learning (to swim) and I wanted to give a bit back to the community that supported me throughout my career, which is the founding to why we set up in the first place.

‘Going forward, I just wanted the kids to have a fun experience of learning to swim.

'When they get so far through us because the pool spaces aren’t big enough, I then move them onto clubs and things like that.

‘Where they go from there is kind of their own destiny but I’ve given them the life skill that they can swim and they’re safe.

‘It then opens up so many doors up in terms of what you can do in the water field, really.'

Youngsters across the Portsmouth area could have very few more qualified coaches teaching them to swim.

Sexton performed at the Athens Olympics in 2004 having broken new ground in British swimming the year before.

The gold medal she won in the 200m backstroke event in Barcelona saw her become the first swimmer from these shores to win a World Championship title.

There's also the small matter of collecting her MBE from the Queen in 2004 for services to the sport and a 200m backstroke Commonwealth Games gold from Kuala Lumpur in 1998 to throw in the mix.

Sexton downplays what she achieved but occasional opportunities to reflect allows her to recognise some of the incredible success she enjoyed.

‘You have moments where you find things or you see a photograph or when we do the inspirational days and you’re forced to talk about it,' said Sexton.

‘I don’t perhaps appreciate it enough still. I’m quite a modest person so I’m not one to blow my own trumpet and be like, ‘oh I’ve done this and done that.’

‘It is nice to reminisce sometimes and think that was pretty amazing what I did.'