Perhaps the most unknown side of the scientist and founding father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), is the sportsman.
Franklin, apart from being an American politician, polymath, scientist and inventor, was a muscular athlete; He was very fit and practiced all kinds of sports: weight lifting, jogging , swimming … In fact, he was an excellent swimmer. On one occasion, he swam nearly four miles from Chelsea to Blackfriars, after jumping from a ship sailing down the Thames. It was the year 1726. He was one of the first men to do swimming marathons.
Additionally, Benjamin Franklin was a competent swimming teacher and coach; He advised on water safety, lifeboat salvage to escape shipwrecks, and the importance of universal classes for learning to swim, although he turned down an offer from Sir William Wyndham to open the first American swimming school in England. Mind you, he proposed that all Commonwealth schools should have swimming programs.
