Hong Kong swim school Splash Foundation co-founder on empowering others

Simon Holliday recalls the moment that led him to co-found Hong Kong non-profit swim school Splash Foundation, and his own open-water swimming exploits

Reading Time:6 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Simon Holliday, co-founder of Splash Foundation, a Hong Kong non-profit that teaches children from underserved communities how to swim. Photo: Simon Holliday

Kate Whitehead

Published: 11:15am, 28 Apr 2024

I was born in 1978, near Ashford, Kent, southeast England, and we moved to Cambridgeshire when I was about four.

I learned to swim when I was four and was so proud to get my purple 10 metres (33 feet) badge. My mum sewed it into my swimming shorts.

When I was seven, I was in a swimming lesson with a bunch of other kids. The coach was an impatient person; she probably was not in the right job. She asked me to fetch a heavy rubber brick that she had thrown into the deep end.

I got close to it and came up. She tapped her watch and said, “Come on, Simon, we haven’t got all day.” I tried a second time and failed. All the other kids laughed.

I cried in the car on the way home. Swimming was something I felt I was good at and that had been taken away from me. It had a lasting impact and I did not swim for 20 years. I got into other things. Football felt easier and I played from the age of about 10.

Simon Holliday at the beach as a boy. He learned to swim when he was four. Photo: Simon Holliday

Therefore I am

I did a degree in international politics at Lancaster University, a campus university on the edge of the Lake District in northwest England. I had the best three years of my life.