Watch what Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington said after opening Farringdon Community Academy's new £6m pool

The words of two time Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington OBE who was at Farringdon Community Academy to open the schools new 20 metre by 8.5 metre swimming pool.

As well as being used by the school’s pupils, the new £6m facility is also going to be used by other schools in the city as well as the local community.

Rebecca won two gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, taking her place on the winning podium in the 400-metre freestyle and 800-metre freestyle events and breaking the 19-year-old world record of Janet Evans in the 800-metre final.

She then went on to claim two bronze medals at the London 2012 Olympics.

Rebecca has been involved in facilitating the teaching of swimming to the city’s children for over a decade through her Swim! school.

After performing the ribbon cutting to officially open the new swimming pool Rebecca said: “Swim! was teaching children at the school’s old pool and it’s amazing to be here today to open this fantastic facility.

“Five years ago we saw the plans for the new pool and so to be here today to see those designs become a reality is brilliant. The new swimming pool is even better than we expected.

“I wish I’d had a facility like this when I was at school and it would be amazing to think in 10 or 15 years time we have an Olympian who learnt to swim at Farringdon.”

Rebecca hopes the investment in the new swimming pool can be replicated across the country.

She said: “Learning to swim is so important. It’s part of the national curriculum but in the last 10 years over 450 swimming pools have closed across the UK.

“It’s so difficult for schools to facilitate their children learning to swim as the time and transport costs to get children to their nearest pools is prohibitive.

“Learning to swim is a potentially life saving skill, which is particularly important when it comes to costal towns and cities like Sunderland.”

As well as enabling Rebecca’s Swim! coaches to continue their swimming lessons with the city’s children, the pool can also be used by other local swimming and community groups.

Rebecca said: “It’s massively important that this facility can be accessed by the whole community. Swimming is an amazing fitness activity which can be done by people of all ages which is good for both your physical and mental health.

“You can also swim when you’re pregnant or in rehab from an injury. It’s no surprise that as swimming pools close obesity and drowning rates go up.”

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Also at the opening ceremony was the school’s principal Jordan Bedford.

Mr Bedford said: “It’s phenomenal to see this facility today and to be able to timetable swimming into our lessons.

“The old swimming pool building was built in the 1970s and this new facility is so much bigger and better.

“Swimming is a vital life-skill and by the time our children leave school we want to ensure they are all confident swimmers.”

One of the schools already booked in to make use of the state-of-the-art facility is Sunningdale school; a special school in the city which educates children with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties.

Headteacher James Waller said: “This new pool offers a multi-sensory experience which will really engage our autistic children.

“For our children with profound learning difficulties the pool also provides a safe environment for them to learn the vital life-skill of swimming.

“It allows them to develop their physical health well as controlling their breathing and developing fine motor skills.

“We aren’t part of the same trust as Farringdon (The Northern Education Trust) and so we are really grateful to them for allowing us to access such a fantastic facility.”

The first person to officially test out the new pool was Year 10 pupil Danny Graham.

Anyone who is interested in using Farringdon Community Academy’s new swimming pool should contact the school via the contact page on their website.

You can find out more about Rebecca’s swimming school on the Swim! website.