Oliver Kenny: The deaflympian achieving his dream to launch his very own swim school for young deaf swimmers (BSL)

My name is Oliver Kenny although most people call me Oli. I am profoundly deaf and wear a cochlear implant. I grew up in a village called Watlington which is outside of King’s Lynn. I am a swimming teacher and coach, I teach school swimming lessons, mainstream swimming lessons and I coach for West Norfolk Swimming Club. I also teach at my deaf swim school “Kenny deaf swim school.”

My first language was British Sign Language then once I received a cochlear implant I started to learn to speak and lipread with my speech therapist. I use both ways of communicating; BSL and Lipreading but with my work I mostly use lipreading.

My first memory of enjoying swimming was my first swimming competition. I absolutely loved racing against other swimmers and the whole atmosphere at the pool was really exciting and the desire I had to beat them made me really work hard in training.

I also love the challenge of getting better and finishing really intense sessions which at first seems impossible. Can you believe I used to hate swimming before I joined a club with my sister? However, as soon as I did my first competition I fell in love with the sport.

As I got older I knew that I wouldn’t be able to swim at such high level all my life. I started to think about what I would like to do for a job. It made sense that I went into sports coaching/teaching as I have a huge passion for sports and I knew that I could never leave the swimming pool ever.

I felt like I had so much experience and knowledge about swimming and I wanted to give something back to the sport and share my experience and knowledge to the younger swimmers. Hopefully I can inspire them to become better swimmers than me and also to give them what I didn’t have when I first swam.

I am a very visual swim teacher as I make the kids copy what I do and watch every part of my demonstration. I do struggle in a noisy environment when I’m speaking to the parents but I always take them away to somewhere that’s quieter.

In my mainstream swim lessons I do sometimes give out “silent lessons” where no one is allowed to speak including me which helps me out massively and the kids are more engaged because they aren’t used to listening with their eyes and it’s good fun too. I always find a different way round communication barriers and try other ways to see what suits me the best and the kids too.

There have been a few challenges for me as a swimmer. There were a few competitions that I did where the officials didn’t move away from the starting light (a light that signals me to go and race) and refused to move because the official couldn’t see all the swimmers on the blocks.

This was very frustrating as I wanted to focus on my race. However, this hardly happens as the swimming community are taught to respect each other and find ways to support one another no matter how hard it is. For anyone who swims they will understand what a special place it is to be.

There are a lot of mainstream teachers that would go that extra mile into supporting their deaf swimmer but I feel it’s not enough as they are not fully meeting the child’s communication needs. I feel deaf swimmers are not always fully relaxed and so they will find it harder to progress in swimming with a mainstream teacher and be able to enjoy the experience because they are having to work harder to understand everything.

That’s why I have set up Kenny deaf swim school to give deaf children opportunities to learn to swim from an Ex-Deaflmpian without having to worry about fitting in and misunderstanding the information and to actually enjoy swimming as well as being safe in the water.

Swimming is such an important life skill, it allows you to be safe in the water, its good for your mind as well as physical well being. It also teaches you lots about life! It gives you that confidence to tackle whatever life throws at you and encourages you to not give up and find ways around things.

Kenny Deaf swim school is the first Deaf swim school in the UK. At the school we meet your children’s communication needs whether it’ll be BSL, SSE (signed supported English) or an Oral approach.

It is currently located at Alive St James Swimming pool in King’s Lynn in Norfolk, however I am looking into expanding by setting up more swim schools around the UK. We accept any swimmers aged from 5-12 years old with any level of hearing loss at any ability. We will be setting up a Social media platform soon, to keep everyone updated with the journey that the Kenny deaf swim school goes on.

I am so thankful that I’m already in the process of achieving my dream: to create lots of deaf swim schools around the UK with a pathway so that young children with any kind of hearing loss can have opportunities to be educated in life skills. These include being safe in the water, gaining confidence, creating forever friendships and so much more. It also gives young children with hearing loss a chance to potentially become a deaflympian like me 🙂

Learning to swim/training to become a Deaflympian is a very long progress, and everyone will progress at different speeds at different stages. I had to work hard and consistently for over 2 years to master a specific skill in backstroke which meant that once I’ve achieved it I was able to achieve multiple deaf national backstroke titles and Deaf British records in all Backstroke events.

If you’re a budding deaf swimmer, seek advice and educate your swim teacher on your preferred commutation style. Always ask questions if you misunderstand! Work hard, be consistent and most importantly enjoy it 🙂

To find out more about Oli and his swim school please email: kennyoliver01@gmail.com