Deaf swimming champ Stuart, 12, scoops four medals (From Thisisdorset)

Deaf swimming champ Stuart, 12, scoops four medals

1:00pm Friday 23rd April 2010

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A YOUNG swimming champion has blown most of the competition out of the water.

Dorchester Middle School pupil Stuart Ring, 12, has scooped four silver medals for his prowess in the pool.

Unlike most medal-winning athletes, Stuart waits for a tap on the shoulder instead of the starting gun.

Stuart – who is deaf – sampled his success at the Great Britain Deaf Swimming Championships.

He was runner-up in the 50m front crawl, 50m backstroke, 50m breast stroke and 50m butterfly competitions at the championships in Loughborough.

Stuart’s mum Julie said: “It was lovely to see him do so well. We had tears in our eyes.

“Stuart loves swimming. He just gets on with it and does his swim.

“He belongs to Weymouth Swimming Club and is the only deaf member. He is tapped on the shoulder when they start. They’ve all been very good.”

At the same championships Stuart, of Dorchester, set the Under-12 GB Deaf Swimming Championships record for 50m breast stroke.

He has been in Weymouth Swimming Club for just three years and practises three times a week.

One of Stuart’s teachers at Damers First School noticed that he had an aptitude for the sport.

Stuart competed against other 12 and 13-year-olds in his swimming categories at the championships, with swimmers competing across the board aged from nine to 30.

As well as his mum, he was supported by his dad Martin, his gran and granddad June and Maurice Freemantle and his sister Hannah, 13.

Julie said: “It was a great way for Stuart to make friends.

“Everyone taking part in the championships was deaf in some way.

“My son isn’t one for being left in the corner. He cycles to school every day on his own.

“Nothing stops him from getting on with things. He told me he would like to be a professional swimmer or help to teach swimming.”

The next swimming event Stuart will be taking part in is an event for disabled swimmers in Weymouth. Further afield, he will compete in a swimming event in Liverpool in July.

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