Annabel Pattison hopes to inspire others with hearing loss try artistic swimming

City of Salford Synchronised Swimming Club’s Annabel Pattison (pictured centre) hopes to encourage more swimmers with hearing loss to take up the sport.

Annabel has won medals at both the last two Swim England Artistic Swimming Combo Cups with silver as part of Salford’s Division One 13-18 Years squad last year and bronze as part of the club’s Division Two 15-18 Years squad in 2024.

She was a key part of both Salford sides, swimming a solo as part of their silver medal winning energetic ‘madness’ routine and adding bronze where the swam last of almost 100 routines at Ponds Forge last month.

She does all this despite being unable to hear once she gets to poolside where she has to remove her hearing aids before getting in the water.

Explaining how she keeps in time, Annabel said: “I can’t follow the music but I know how to keep in time with the routine by counting.

“It’s a bit like dance. All I need to do is make sure that I know when my teammates start the count, which they always let me know, and we’ll stay together.”

Everyone has always been welcoming

This year’s Combo Cup was Annabel’s last and her coach Jess Fletcher says she’s been a pleasure to coach.

She said: “We’re all really proud of her and for me she’s very easy to coach.

“In artistic swimming there’s a lot of hand gestures which she can read straight away and instead of me tapping the pool we’ll have eye contact so it’s more visual.

“And when you have someone like Annabel who works so hard it works really well.”

Going forward, Annabel hopes more people with hearing loss give the sport a go.

She added: “I think a lot of people think that they can’t do it because they can’t hear. But the main thing is that you want to do it and that you enjoy it.

“It was about six years ago when I started. I really liked swimming and my mum knew of Salford and liked artistic swimming so we decided to give it a go and I preferred it.

“Everyone in the sport has always been really welcoming, especially my teammates. We’re a really great team and it’s great to be involved with everyone.”

Images: Will Johnston Photography