Elizabeth Beisel, three time Olympian talks about Swimways National Learn to Swim Day

Teaching kids to swim early has lots of unusual benefits

Elizabeth Beisel started learning how to swim when she was only 6 months old.  It served her well as she is a three-time Olympian and took home two medals a silver for the 400m medley and a bronze in the 200m backstroke.

The 7th Annual Swimways National Learn to Swim Day is Saturday, May 19, so it is a great time to learn and get a jump on summer fun for the whole family.

A recent survey from Swimways shows that there are multiple surprising benefits of learning to swim at an early age including

There are many benefits of learning to swim at an early age. A recent national survey by Swimways reveals that more than 4 out of 5 parents get that learning to swim by five increases a child's self-confidence, but 88 percent were not aware that learning to swim before five can also help with math skills.

Additional findings from the survey of 1,000 parents under the age of 18 who live at home, also showed:

• Only 14 percent of parents understand that swimming can help develop oral expression and less than half of those surveyed understood that swimming can also boost children’s social skills
• 82 percent of all parents overwhelmingly agree that children should learn to swim at least by age 5
• 28 percent of mothers are far more comfortable with children learning before they turn 1 year old vs 14% of fathers comfortable with the same age group

Elizabeth Beisel, Olympian and National Learn to Swim spokesperson spoke with Michelle Tompkins for TheCelebrityCafe.com about her Olympic career, her recent retirement, what she has been up to since Rio, what she likes to do for fun, what are some of the mental and psychological benefits of learning to swim at an early age, the importance of National Learn to Swim Day, where parents can get more information and more.

See the full interview here:

Elizabeth Beisel can be found here and get your free resources at teachmetoswim.com.