Swimming is a sport in which most people can participate from a very early age, continuing throughout their entire lives. Among leisure and recreational activities, swimming is still generally considered to be one of the best and most enjoyable forms of physical exercise for developing and maintaining good levels of physical fitness. While I do not have up to date statistics on the numbers of people swimming as a form of physical and recreational activity, the 1996 national survey of involvement in sport and physical activity indicated that swimming was second only to walking as the most popular form of physical and recreational activity.