Scottish Swimming has received a huge boost with the announcement of a million pounds of investment from sportscotland with more than £900,000 coming from lottery funding.

Sportscotland Chair Louise Martin CBE and Minister for Public Health and Sport, Shona Robison, visited  the Gorbals Leisure Centre in Glasgow to confirm £1,218,500 of funding for Scottish Swimming over the next 12 months.

It is the biggest single investment in a Scottish governing body of sport.

Announcing the funding Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland said: "The benefits of being able to swim last a lifetime. Swimming starts out as a vital and potentially lifesaving skill and quickly becomes a fun and enjoyable activity to take part in with friends and family. It is also the ideal sport to improve fitness and health particularly for older people. That's why it is so important for us to invest in this sport right across the board.

"Our investment of £1,218,500 will allow Scottish Swimming to create more quality opportunities for people to participate in the sport through learn to swim programmes, community clubs, for fitness and health and of course, to support the development of our talented athletes as they aim to continue Scotland's fantastic record of achievement on the world stage."

Welcoming the investment, Maureen Campbell, Chair, Scottish Swimming added: "Scottish Swimming welcomes this investment from sportscotland.  A key aim for a number of years has been on working in collaboration with clubs and local authorities to set up partnerships focused on coaching and water access.

"Our attention to partnership working is critical to our latest initiative, the development of a new facilities strategy.  Delivering against this strategy will rely heavily on the quality networks our sportscotland funded development and performance teams have established with the local communities, including all local authorities, Leisure Trusts, and other pool providers."