With nearly 190,000 lakes, a vast archipelago, and a long coastline, summer in Finland is synonymous with water activities. Holidaymakers flock to beaches and lakeside cottages and enjoy everything from swimming and kayaking to sailing to paddleboarding.
However, many adults cannot fully dive into the quintessential Finnish experience due to inadequate swimming skills.
"There are hundreds of thousands of lakes in Finland, but surprisingly many adults who do not know how to swim live in the country," said Tommi Liimatta, Chief Sports Instructor for the City of Tampere.
A 2022 study by Aula Research in association with the Finnish Swimming Teaching and Lifesaving Federation (FSL) revealed that about four percent of respondents over 18 cannot swim at all while 44 percent can swim only short distances, up to 50 metres.
"The benchmark for swimming ability in Finland has been 200 metres, which is based on a definition of swimming ability jointly developed by the Nordic countries," said Tero Savolainen, a swimming instruction specialist at FSL.
According to this definition, a person immersed in water should be able to swim continuously for 200 metres, of which at least 50 meters is backstroke.
Savolainen said the primary reason for Finns not knowing how to swim is a lack of opportunity to learn as a child. Several factors could contribute to this: parents may not prioritise or enjoy swimming, and local conditions might be unfavourable. In some parts of Finland, long distances to swimming pools, cold open waters, and a short swimming season can significantly limit the chances of learning to swim.
Non-swimmers' stigma
One of the biggest barriers to learning swimming as an adult, however, is the shame and stigma associated with not knowing how to swim, Savolainen said.
"Swimming is considered a skill that everyone should know in Finland. This certainly causes feelings of shame in some adults who do not know how to swim, and prevents them from learning how to swim," he said.
Savolainen recounted a story he heard about a couple who had been together for a long time, where one partner didn't know the other couldn't swim, despite owning a summer cottage by the lake.
Andrew Harrison, a swimming coach from Tampere who has been teaching adults to swim for nearly 25 years, said he has observed this phenomenon among his students.
"There is a huge amount of shame associated with this, especially with men. They tend to hide the fact that they can’t swim from their own families. When on holiday, they will stay in the shallow area or just chill at the pool. Not knowing how to swim as an adult carries a lot of shame, and they have to hide it all their lives," he said.
Fear of water also renders many adults helpless.
"Negative or frightening experiences in or near water can linger in the mind and raise the threshold for attempting to swim," Savolainen said.
Swimming skills gap among foreigners
The Aula study reflects Finland's population by region, age, and gender but does not provide specific information on the swimming skills of immigrants.
Many foreigners in Finland, especially from South Asia, Africa, or the Middle East, cannot swim due to various factors including lack of access to swimming pools or lessons growing up, cultural baggage or simply an absence of swimming tradition in their home countries.
Harrison said that nearly all his adult students are immigrants or from foreign backgrounds who never learned to swim.
"My students come from countries where either there is no access to swimming facilities or the water bodies are not safe to swim in. For many, learning swimming technique may not be that difficult, but overcoming the mental block and fear around the sport is often the biggest obstacle," said Harrison, who runs Ilo Ui — Swim Joy, a small swimming school in Tampere.
He said many adult learners are in their late 20s and early 30s when they finally decide to take the plunge.
"That's when they are starting families and don't want to pass on their phobias or reservations to their children. Many of them want to learn so they can fully embrace the joy of swimming in a country like Finland," the triathlon coach said.
A case in point is his student Daniel Paul, a 37-year-old marketing manager and personal branding coach who grew up in India, where most people don't have access to swimming facilities.
"I am married to a Finn and whenever we go to a summer cottage with her friends and family, they often say, 'Let's go to the lake and jump in,' while I’m left sitting on the sidelines watching everyone swim. People often mocked me in good humour, but it started getting to me," he said.
Paul signed up for group swimming classes in his late 20s but struggled to progress in a class where students came with varying skill levels. He also failed to meet the 100-metre requirement to advance to the next class, finally leading him to seek private coaching when he was in his early 30s.
"Learning how to swim has completely changed my life. Now I am scuba diving in Santorini and trying things I never did before, wondering why I waited so long to learn swimming. The biggest boost swimming gave me was in my self-confidence. Learning something new as an adult truly improves other aspects of your life," he said.
Migrant women learn to swim
The swimming skills of migrants, especially women, are significantly less developed compared to people born in Finland, according to Monaliiku, a state-supported Helsinki-based well-being and sports organisation for multicultural women.
In addition to offering various fitness and movement classes for migrant women, the organisation provides women-only swimming lessons through its SwimPower project, which recently secured funding from the Ministry of Health.
"Supporting women's swimming skills, especially mothers, is crucial for achieving intergenerational equality and preventing drowning deaths, according to Claudia Nystrand, Managing Director of Monaliiku.
"Lack of swimming skills can easily be passed down, and it is more likely that a mother who fears being in the water and cannot swim will prefer to 'protect' her children from water and water activities," she said.
Also, many migrant women don't always feel comfortable in mixed-gender pools or an environment where they feel like an ethnic minority, according to Nystrand.
"Women who experience discrimination, racism or inappropriate behaviour due to their skin colour, ethnicity or dress may find predominantly white spaces, such as city swimming pools, unsafe," she said.
Neleah Kagiri from Kenya, a specialist in immigrant activities at the Trade Union for the Public and Welfare Sectors (JHL), discusses how finding a safe space was crucial in her journey to learn swimming as an adult in her 40s.
"I was terrified of swimming and couldn't even enter pools. Swimming is not a cultural norm in Kenya unless you live near the ocean or other bodies of water," she said.
According to Kagiri, her wake-up call was when her children wanted to go swimming and she was terrified to take them.
"Finding adult swimming classes was challenging. Having worked with immigrants myself, I observed that many find Finnish teaching methods intimidating. Monaliiku's teachers, with their immigrant backgrounds, understood my struggles without needing any explanation. It’s important to have instructors who don’t look down on students," she said.
"I remember crying when I learnt to float for the first time because it was such a significant breakthrough for me. I was proud of myself. There is no shame in learning at any age," Kagiri said.
More than 120 women participate in Monaliiku's swimming courses every six months. Each swimming session costs the participants four euros.
Currently, there are more women on the waiting list than can be accommodated in the courses over the next year, Nystrand revealed.
"With the new funding we have received, we intend to increase the number of classes per week, allowing us to accommodate more participants and better meet the growing demand," she said.
Need for more swimming lessons
Most major municipalities in Finland offer swimming lessons for adult beginners, but these classes, limited to 7-8 participants and held only a few times a year, fill up quickly. For many aspiring learners, pricey private instructors are not always a feasible option.
Savolainen from FSL admits that this is a common challenge in municipalities across Finland.
"There are not enough swimming lessons for children or adults. The most common reason is the lack of facilities. We have just completed a study on this subject and our next step is to lobby municipalities to increase the number of swimming courses. This will require local authorities to reorganise their activities and increase the number of lessons," Savolainen said.
Swimming instructor Harrison said that focusing on children's swimming skills is also crucial to ensure they are competent swimmers in adulthood.
"Everyone should have access to swimming. The limited city resources should be used to focus on those who cannot swim at all. If you attend classes only occasionally and have parents who don't enjoy swimming or don't come from a culture of swimming, you will never learn and it's a generational cycle that can be hard to break," he said.
There are no quick fixes to learning how to swim, the best way to improve your skills is to hit the waters as often as you can, Savolainen said.
"You learn from repetitions and experience. Children often learn through play, and they practice skills without realising it. For adults, performing repetitions requires patience. Depending on prior water experiences, after 10-20 sessions, swimming will start to feel easier," he said.
Savolainen said summer is a good time to take the plunge.
"There are plenty of swimming pools and swimming beaches in Finland. Feel free to get to know them. The staff at the swimming pools will help you if you have any questions. However, the most important thing is to swim safely without endangering yourself," Savolainen said.
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