Swimming pool facts

The internet is full of random, interesting facts. We’ve come across rather a lot lately which relate to swimming and swimming pools so we decided to collect a few and share them with you. Feel free to let us know which ones really blow your mind!

> The average person produces 25,000 litres of saliva in his or her lifetime — that’s enough spit to fill TWO swimming pools!

> An Olympic size pool can hold from 700,000 to 850,000 gallons of water.

> According to the Guinness World Records the largest swimming pool in the world is San Alfonso del Mar Seawater pool in Algarrobo, Chile. It is 1,013 m (3,324 ft) long and has an area of 8 ha (19.77 acre), it was completed in December 2006.

> The turbo pump on the Space Shuttle main engine is powerful enough to drain an average-sized swimming pool in 25 seconds.

> An hour of vigorous swimming will burn up to 650 calories. It burns off more calories than walking or biking.

> A fresh egg sinks in water and an old egg swims.

> Water’s resistance is over ten times that of the air.

> Ancient drawings and paintings found in Egypt depicting people swimming date back to 2500 BCE.

> Swimming flippers were invented by Benjamin Franklin.

> The first recorded swimming races were held in Japan in 36 B.C.

> The first man to cross the English Channel swimming from England to France is Englishman Captain Matthew Webb in 1875.

> The Titanic was the first ocean liner to have a swimming pool and a gym.

> The first filtration system for a swimming pool was introduced in 1910.

And here are some for the animal lovers among you:

> Sea lions can swim 9600 km in one go and only stop to sleep.

> Rats can swim 1 km without taking a break.

> Gorillas can’t swim.

> Elephants can swim as many as 20 miles a day — they use their trunks as natural snorkels!

> Trout swim around 6 km/h – that’s faster than the average untrained human.