Kinesiology Faculty and Students Aim to Break Guinness World Record ™ June 13, 2012

In addition to all of the other honors the College of Education enjoys – being number one nationally among public university graduate education programs, having the most extensive physical culture archives in the world, having the number one community college leadership program – it may be able to add Guinness World Record ™ holder to the list.

On Thursday, June 14, 27 students in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education (KHE) will participate in what’s been dubbed the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson. This year there are more than 500 official host locations around the globe, including 24 countries on five continents and 46 states in the US.

“This is a worldwide event that’s designed to promote water safety and save lives,” said Don Crowley, who in addition to being a KHE faculty member also is an American Red Cross instructor and volunteer and a U.S. Swimming and Diving coach with almost 30 years aquatic instruction experience. “The swimming lesson I’ll be leading on the UT campus will include undergraduate and graduate students from one of my summer classes and will take place at Gregory Gym. We’ll also have two TA’s and three lifeguards assisting.”

The lesson at Gregory Gym will be at 2 p.m. (CST) and the public is invited to watch the event.

In addition to leading this lesson, Crowley also will be directing several other classes around Austin on Thursday. Crowley stated that each year the event has grown larger, with the current record standing at 3,971 participants from 34 U.S. states and five countries.

To be a host location and take part in the event you must register online, and the Guinness World Record ™ rules state that each swim class must include at least 25 participants, all participants must be taught the same lesson simultaneously, the lesson has to last a total of 30 minutes and it must be witnessed by two individuals who are not part of that facility.

“Drowning remains the leading cause of injury-related death in children ages one to five, and many of these drownings are totally preventable,” said Crowley. “Austin is doing pretty well when it comes to water safety, but there’s always room for improvement.

“On Lady Bird Lake, for example, we would like to see more people wearing water safety vests as they canoe and paddleboard and so forth, and on Lake Travis we’d really like to reduce the number of boating accidents. This is an aquatic town, with everything from Olympic swimmers training here to toddlers taking their first dip in Barton Springs. Everybody loves Austin’s water. With so many people taking the dive, it’s even more important that we get water safety information out there and help people of all ages stay safe while they’re having fun.”

To register for the World’s Largest Swimming Lesson, go to www.wlsl.org/.

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910