Fear of the water is ingrained in many, but our connection with nature also appears to be ebbing away
As the summer slips towards its close with the triumph of our aquatic athletes in Rio, there is a terrible contrast in the fate of six lost souls around the British coast this past weekend. On the one hand, absolute control and exultation in what a human body can achieve in the water; on the other, the appalling tragedy that can result when we lose control – all the more awful because it can happen so quickly – in the act of having fun.
I never learned to swim until I was in my late 20s. Despite being born and brought up in a city by the sea, I feared it, and its power. I know many people share that trauma: pretending you’ve got a cold when everyone else goes to the swimming baths. Yet even Adam Peaty, who proved himself to be one of the fastest swimmers on earth when he won his gold medal, was scared witless of the water as a boy. That tension stays with us, in our relationship to the water.
Related: 95% of British beaches clean enough to swim, EU tests show