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Sport stars’ water babies

Life is going swimmingly for these athletes’ tiny sons.

Olympians Dean Kent and Steven Ferguson have known each other since they were in water wings – so it’s only fitting their gorgeous sons Connor (11 months) and Flynn (9 months) start their friendship the same way.

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Dean, a three-time former Olympic swimmer, and Steven, who will be representing New Zealand in the canoe team at the London Olympics, have been teaching their sons how to swim since the boys were two months old – just as their fathers taught them.

“Our dads were really close, they did surf life-saving together when they were young,” says Dean as he bounces son Connor on his lap. “So it’s quite nice that we’re able to keep the tradition going a bit!”

Flynn and Connor have been taking part in the Parents and Babies swim classes at Northern Arena swim school in Auckland, where Dean is head of swimming, since before they could crawl. Not surprisingly, both boys have managed to make an impressive splash during their classes.

“I haven’t seen Flynn cry once yet,” says Steven. “Yeah, he was straight in when he was two months old,” agrees Dean. “I said to the ladies, ‘I’m not sure if we’ll do a full submersion, we’ll have to work up to it,’ but boy, was I wrong! He loved it. “Connor was a little bit rougher, he had eczema, but he absolutely loves it now,” Steven adds.

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Watching their sons learn to swim has been amazing for the two athletes, taking them back to the early days of their decades-long friendship. “It’s really cool to see. Me and Stevo used to meet up a lot at surf life saving competitions when we were younger – he was always kicking my butt,” laughs Dean.

But their interest in their sons’ swimming progress isn’t because they’re determined to see their boys follow in their Olympic footsteps – it’s a direct response to New Zealand’s shocking drowning statistics.

“We started the Parents and Babies swim classes because of how many people are drowning in our oceans,” says Dean, who set up the tots’ swim classes himself. “We decided to take an active position on it. Kids are never too young to learn how to swim so we’re just trying to see what we can do in our area. “We’ve had babies as young as five days old take part. By the time kids get to school age, their sense of fear is well ingrained in them – in some cases that can take up to a year to sort out.”

While Flynn’s swimming lessons will be on hold for a few weeks as his dad heads off to his fourth Olympics, Steven says he’ll have an extra special good luck charm in London with him. “He’s coming with us this time,” Steven grins. “So we might have to squeeze in a couple of lessons over there in the lake!”

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