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6 Minute English From BBCLearningEnglish.com Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBCLearningEnglish.
I'm Neil.
And I'm Georgina.
Can you swim, Georgina?
I can, Neil.
I learn to swim as a child, and now I enjoy swimming for exercise and to relax.
In the summer, hundreds of keen swimmers, like Georgina, head off to swimming pools, lakes and beaches to take a dip, and informal idiom meaning go for a swim.
Swimming has many health benefits, and since ancient times has been used to promote strength and well-being.
But swimming's not just about exercise, there's far more to it beneath the surface, as we'll be finding out in this program on the history of swimming.
Although evidence suggests that ancient Mediterranean people dived eagerly into temple pleasure pools, lakes and the sea, other cultures have swum against the tide.
Another swimming idiom there, Neil, meaning not to follow what everyone else is doing.
Someone who did enjoy swimming was the poet Lord Byron.
He wrote poems popularising the sport, and in 1810 swam the hell-espont, a stretch of water separating Europe from Asia.