Overland Park, Kansas – Kids, families and Olympic Gold Medalists from coast to coast came together yesterday to set a new Guinness World Record™ for the Largest Simultaneous Swimming Lesson ever conducted. Team WLSL, which set the first record in 2010, needed more than 24,873 participants from around the globe to set a fourth consecutive Guinness World Record.

While it can take weeks for the official paperwork to be reviewed, registrations for the morning event included more than 35,000 participants at over 700 locations – an increase of more than 40 percent over last year’s record.

More than 800 swimmers joined Olympic Gold Medalist Misty Hyman at Big Surf Waterpark in Tempe, AZ, in an attempt to beat the previous Guinness World Record of 611 participants for the single largest WLSL location set in 2011.

Janet Evans, Rowdy Gaines, Brendan Hansen and other current and previous USA Swimming National Team members coached and encouraged swimmers, taught the back float and signed autographs to support the worldwide event.

“The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson is a great way to send the message swimming lessons save lives,” said Janet Evans, four-time Olympic Gold Medalist and champion for the WLSL event.

Tragically, drowning remains the second leading cause of accidental death for kids ages 1 to 14 and leading cause of accidental death for kids 1 to 5. Research shows participation in formal swimming lessons can reduce the risk of drowning by 88 percent among children aged 1 to 4.

Visit www.wlsl.org to learn more about The World’s Largest Swimming Lesson™ created by the World Waterpark Association in 2010 and supported by dozens of water safety organizations and media
partners around the globe.

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