Swim Ontario Return to Swimming Message

It looks like we may be heading into some potentially challenging times. 

Swimming is an important part of our lives and Swim Ontario’s number one goal in the next few weeks is to provide advice to our affiliated clubs to enable them to keep their members’ faces in the water. 

Swim Ontario, along with our affiliated Clubs, is taking every step to keep swimmers in the water while limiting the continued spread of COVID-19, through our detailed Return to Swimming (RTS) plans.

While Swim Ontario has received reports of a few positive Covid-19 cases due to familial and close contact transmission away from the pool, we are not aware of any swimming related community spread.  In fact, several Health units have complimented Swim Ontario and our clubs on the safety procedures in those RTS plans.

Now, more than ever, we need to be vigilant in following all aspects of:

• screening, anyone with symptoms (even mild) must NOT attend activities and must be turned away;
• masks must remain on at all times except when in the water;
• physical distancing of at least 2m at all times;
• hand hygiene (hand washing with soap and water / hand sanitizer);
• respiratory protocols followed (cough/sneeze in elbow).

Public Health Units have indicated to clubs that our procedures are STRONG but, we must continue to maintain a strict adherence to the procedures outlined in approved RTS Plans so we can continue to demonstrate to our local Public Health Units our competence to follow their advice and avoid swimming community spread.

Unfortunately, Swim Ontario has also been made aware of breaches to either RTS plans, or facility COVID Safety protocols from facility contacts, social media posts, or by clubs and individuals contacting us directly.

Clubs failing to follow their RTS plans will be disciplined.

Based on today’s government announcements, after discussions with several key facilities, our best short-term direction is as follows:

• training may remain status quo, provided your facility approves;
• clubs must not progress to the next phase of training or return to racing until further notice; 
  • swimmers must be physically distanced with the start/stop points and absolutely no assembling/congregating at the end walls;
  • swimmers must be spaced out with start stops at minimum 2m;
  • there should never be 2 or more swimmers at the end walls or side by side between single or double lanes;
  • clubs are encouraged to continue to work on their Return to Racing Safety Plans and other pre-requisites to prepare for the eventual Return to Racing in our province; 
• any plans to move to single lane swimming must remain on hold;
  • please remain double-lane swimming (up to 8 swimmers per double lane); 
• if you are currently at single lane swimming, you may continue to do so with facility/municipality/city approval; and,
• should a region of the Province be ushered back to a Stage 2, a partial lockdown, our virtual training procedures from last April are copied for your reference:
  • Club Virtual Training FAQ
  • Club Virtual Training Update
  • Online Training/Insurance Law Update:
    • Only Swim Ontario registered coaches can design training for athletes to do remotely as long as the training is done in a safe environment and is an approved activity.
    • Athletes are to be reminded to only use equipment in the manner for which it is designed.
    • Only Swim Ontario registered coaches can conduct virtual live training environments with athletes registered with Swim Ontario subject to the conditions as set out in the endorsement received from the insurer.  Coverage for virtual training has been extended to November 30, 2020.  New insurance coverage begins Dec. 1, 2020.
    • Former Swimming Canada IST Director, Dr. Allan Wrigley, has kindly provided some thoughts on best practices HERE.

The choices people make in the next 28 days are critical to helping our communities with their continued efforts to fight the newest surge of Covid-19 cases throughout the province. 

We want to thank the vast majority of people in the swimming community for continuing to follow public health advice and guidelines and doing the right thing!

Swim Ontario