Michael Phelps signs the Pool Safely pledge.
“When you hear a stat that drowning for children under the age of 14 is the second-highest cause of death, that says to me that something needs to be done,” Phelps said in an interview with USA Today.
Since Pool Safely began in 2010, drownings dropped by 17 percent among children younger than five. However, 350 children still drown and 6,000 more sustain water-related injuries each year.
“We are making progress, but we need even more kids taking swim lessons, more adults serving as Water Watchers, more fences installed and more people trained in CPR,” says Anne Marie Buerkle, acting chairman of the CPSC.
Michael Phelps is a natural fit for the campaign, not only because he won 23 Olympic medals in swimming, but also because of his work with the Michael Phelps Foundation. The “im program,” one of the Foundation’s main programs, offers water-safety courses, swim training and health and wellness education for children. The program is taught at 46 chapters of Boys & Girls Clubs of America and in 35 different countries through Special Olympics.
“The progress we have made to date is very encouraging, but we have more work to do. We are committed to helping people have a better understanding of how to be safer, yet still have fun, in and around the water,” Phelps says.
The Pool Safely program currently has 1,000 partners committed to spreading the word about water safety. Pool pros can help by sharing the educational materials available on the Pool Safely website and by encouraging their communities to take the Pool Safely pledge.
“I will never downplay the accomplishments that I had,” Phelps tells USA Today. “And for me finally being able to realize a little bit of what I did (at the Olympics), it’s so much smaller than to be able to save a child’s life in the water or to help that person not take that next step into something they could never turn back from.”
