Intimate with chlorinated space; weightless yet limited; closed off to taste, sound, and most sight: this is a swimmers state. When ten-year-old Leanne Shapton joins a swim team, she finds an affinity for its rhythms and spends years training, making it to the Olympic trials twice.

Swimming Studiesreflects on her time immersed in a world of rigour and determination, routine and competition. Vivid details of a life spent largely underwater emerge: adolescence in suburban Canada, dawn risings for morning practice, bus rides with teammates, a growing collection of swimsuits, dips in lakes and oceans. When she trades athletic pursuits for artistic ones, the metrics of moving through water endure.

In elegant, spare writing, Shapton renders swimming as a mode of experiencing time, movement, and perspective, capable of shaping our lives in every environment. The result is captivating and profound: a modern classic of sport writing and memoir from a singular talent.

Format: Paperback
Published: UK, 2025
Publisher: Daunt Books
Pages: 320
Language: English
ISBN 10: 191709227X
ISBN 13: 9781917092272