We are aiming to raise £1500 to support children of Sheffield. On average an elite swimmer will cover a distance of 1200 miles/2000kms per year in training and a group of City of Sheffield performance swimmers are travelling 1200 miles/2000 kms – to attend a 6-day swim camp in Italy. Money raised will help support this group with the other 50% of the funding raised being to support Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity ‘Team Theo’.

The commitment of these young athletes is high in their ambition to be the highest performance swimmers and represent themselves, their club, Sheffield, their county and country! To support this commitment and ambition, a group of parents and swimmers are aiming to cycle the equivalent distance, 1200 miles over 6 days between 27 February and 4 March 2018 in aid of City of Sheffield Swimming JO1 Squad (COSSS) swim camp and Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

As a performance swimming club, COSSS aims to give talented and committed athletes from the South Yorkshire area a route to fulfil their potential and the best that they can be. The opportunity for a group of 25 swimmers aged 10-14 years to travel 1200miles to attend a six day swim camp in Lignano (Venice), Italy is an important part of their programme to being independent athletes and the best in their field. There is a high cost and commitment involved with this elite sport that parents have to find to enable their child to continue to train up to 8 times per week and compete to the level that’s required. Any funding raised will therefore help support the costs involved in this camp and thereby support these young athletes realising their ambition.

The City of Sheffield Swim Squad is an established performance swimming club based at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield. Since 1981 the club has won over 250 National Championship medals, more than 100 Great Britain caps, seven Olympic and one Paralympic representations, and is one of the top swimming clubs in Great Britain. It has proven itself to be a successful team and we are immensely proud of our achievements so far. These achievements further demonstrate Sheffield as a leading city in producing elite athletes. Our aim is to continue to support our young people in realising their potential as elite swimmers of the future and for Sheffield to maintain its accolade of producing top athletes.

As a club we are keen to support a local charity which benefits not only our swimmers but other children in the South Yorkshire area and Sheffield Children’s Hospital Charity was our charity of choice for our charity fundraising in 2017. We therefore wish to continue to support this charity which through donations supports the hospital to be at the forefront of paediatric care; allowing it to buy life-saving equipment, fund vital research and create a comfortable, engaging environment for the children who need to use the hospital.

We are grateful to Ponds Forge International Sports Centre for its support in our challenge through providing access to their facilities and cycles. The challenge will culminate in a ‘live’ completion in the entrance lobby of Ponds Forge International Sports Centre on Sunday 4 March from 7 am until 5pm, during the COSSS March Madness Gala.