It is only by virtue of having two daughters at – or close to being – State level finalists in Victoria, Australia, that I have come to appreciate the foundation for Australia’s international success as a swimming nation. By 10, 11, 12 years of age, squad swimmers are already training four or five times a week, each session for up to two hours, and the cliched 5:00am starts are well and truly established. To see how this translates into performance at even club level swim meets is daunting: the sheer number of young swimmers that simply swim very well very fast is, in a literal sense, awesome. And whilst this may seem like an unnecessarily harsh sporting environment into which to introduce or encourage kids,  the side benefits are well documented, with international research overwhelmingly pointing to not only to the more obvious significant physical development and health benefits of swimming as acid / teenager, but also to psycho-social benefits, improved cognitive function, mental health and long term psychological benefits. And many of these benefits apply equally to adults and elderly swimmers.