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About Us

Swimming is a delight at all ages. We're here to help you start ... or improve!

What got us started

We are here to provide you and your loved ones with the confidence, skills and support you need to get the most out of aquatics and swimming and to enjoy the water as much as we do.

As an island nation we are blessed with beautiful waterways and seas. We have access to modern heated pools at home and on holiday. Water surrounds us and we believe that everybody should be able to enjoy it, either as an individual or with the family for fun, leisure, exercise and even competition.

Swimming is a healthy, active and enjoyable activity. It is one of the only hobbies we can participate in from birth – right up until we are old and grey. It is a lifelong gift and skill that we believe we all should and can have.

So what got started us started is our passion for water enjoyment for all ages and abilities and an eagerness to share it. What makes us different is the professional, natural and caring approach of our teachers, our coaches and our support staff. Swimtastic is not a commercial franchise. It is a family managed business with our swimmer’s enjoyment at the heart of all we do.

Our people, our story

Swimtastic is a family owned Irish business. It is managed by wife and husband couple Zuzana and Mark Day – along with a loyal team of teachers and administrative staff. The business began in 2014 in Athy, and then grew out of Zuzana’s love for swimming, her enjoyment of teaching and supporting people and her belief that everybody should be able to experience the fun and joy of swimming with confidence.

We now offer courses across Kildare, Carlow, Laois, Offaly and Kilkenny. We began with a small part time team of 2 but as of 2023, we have grown to a team of 15. This was through the support of our loyal customers, our brilliant team and the support of our partner pools.

Pre-2014

Zuzana is teaching at Club and Leisure Level and Enjoying Competitive Swims.

2014

Swimtastic is founded to provide pre-school Parent and Child Swimming Courses in Athy, Co. Kildare.

2015

Swimtastic now begins offering courses in Portlaoise, Amanda joins the team.

2016

Courses begin in County Offaly, and now Pregnancy Aqua Yoga is introduced

2017

Swimtastic designs and introduces Adult Swimming Courses.

2018

We begin courses in Kilkenny, and Edel, Elaine and Sharon join the team

2019

Swimtastic designs new Junior Swimming and Advanced Adult Swimming Courses.

2020

The team focuses on delivering Pre-school, Junior Swimming, Adult Swimming, Pregnancy Aqua Yoga, and now Advanced and Competitive Swimming Coaching across 5 counties.

The Founders

Zuzana Hruz Day

Prior to founding Swimtastic, Zuzana was a competitive swimmer and coach. She was introduced to the pool by her father as a baby. She progressed to the highest levels – culminating in swimming competitively for Slovakia at European Championships and Triathlons. She completed her first Ironman in 2019.


Zuzana’s passion is teaching children and adults to love the water. She has been working with swimmers for over seventeen years.

Mark Day

Co-founder (and husband) to Zuzana, Mark backs her swimming passion with business activities. Along with the office team, he manages the back end, organisational and I.T. side of Swimtastic. He oversees the course planning, scheduling, bookings, financial, marketing, and I.T. areas.


Irish sport is his main hobby interest and a source of much joy (and frustration). He will also be found seeking out ideal fishing spots along the river barrow.

Meet the Team

Marysia Bowens

From the Curragh, Marysia has been a competitive swimmer and is very determined to help kids and adults to become the best swimmers they can be.

Marysia is currently a member of the Curragh Swim team, and enjoys her Galas. With Swimtastic, Marysia is current teaching Junior swimming in Newbridge and works with children from 5 years old up to 15. 

Elaine Byrne

From Portlaoise, Elaine joined us in 2019. She has a background in children’s education and development. She is a big sports fan and has participated in competitive swimming, basketball and football and has plenty of medals to her name.

Elaine teaches all our swimming programmes, parent and baby, adult swim lessons, pregnancy aqua yoga and our children’s’ swimming lessons.

Emer Challoner

Emer is our Kilkenny based Adult Teacher. Alongside her teaching, Emer works at The Springhill Court Leisure Centre in their Gym and Pool. For the Springhill, Emer also teaches children’s lessons and sometimes is our standby teacher for Parent and Baby.

Emer has over 15 years’ experience in the Leisure Industry and enjoys working with people on their fitness and swim goals.

Amanda Day Mulhall

Amanda is the youngest sister of the Day family and was the first new teacher to join Swimtastic when our swimming groups started to grow in number. She is a qualified stage 2 Parent and Child swimming instructor and a Water Safety Ireland lifeguard. Amanda also teachers Pregnancy Aqua Yoga.

She works across Kildare, Laois and Kilkenny in our partner pools. 

Carmel Hayden

Carmel is a Swimtastic teacher in Newbridge and has spent her entire career of over 40 years devoted to teaching and volunteering with Water Safety Ireland.  Carmel works with our Junior and Adult swimmers.

Her area of expertise, and an area she is very dedicated to; is working with children that have special or additional needs and seeing children getting access to teaching opportunities  

Sinead King

Sinead is also a lifelong swim teacher. She has been teaching swimming for over 25 years and specialises in Water Safety. She teachers our Junior Swimmers in Newbridge, and she also provides Water Safety, Lifeguard Training, Swim Teacher training in her spare time.

 

Sinead volunteers alongside Carmel with Water Safety Kildare and is an avid advocate of professional and safe swim training. 

Taylor McCormack

Taylor is the newest member of Swimtastic family. She was competitive swimmer with Laois Marlins for 10 years and thats where her passion for teaching swimming came from. She loves working with children, and passing on her passion for water, swimming and teaching. 

Maureen Ní Chonchobhair

Maureen is our Swim Co-ordinator which involves the busy tasks of managing our teachers, courses, programmes and the entire planning of our terms. Her role is to design programmes and develop teachers to the point where our customers are getting the best swim education experience we can deliver.

Originally from Carlow, Maureen is a highly qualified swim coach, teacher and administrator. 

Kaitlyn Pereira

Kaitlyn is a new arrival to Ireland’s shores, having spent the last ten years in South Africa as a competitive swimmer and a teacher. She is hugely enthusiastic about her job, and loves to see children and adults alike progressing week on week.

Kaitlyn works across all of our partner pools teaching all of our programmes. Kaitlyn is with Swimtastic since 2022.

Sinead Robinson

Sinead is our office co-ordinator, which means she makes sure things happen at the right time and the right way. With a lot of courses to organise across 5 counties, this keeps Sinead busy.

 

From Dublin, she lives in Athy and is the proud Mum of 2 football and swim loving children. Sinead also volunteers with the local Triathlon and GAA Club.

Donnagh Whelan

Donnagh is a fellow Athy lady. She teaches an array of courses including Adults, Pregnancy and Parent & Baby programmes. Donna teachers Laois, Kildare and Kilkenny.

In her spare time, Donnagh works alongside her husband doing some very notable local charity work in Athy for the homeless community. Donnagh is mum to four lovely children who also love to swim. 

Genevieve Whelan

Genny is a Portlaoise native and has been a teacher with Swimtastic since 2021. She's passionate about swimming and works on all our programmes, including Pregnancy Aqua Yoga, Parent & Baby, Juniors and Adults.

Genny is a supportive and patient instructor. She loves to see her swimmers develop their skills and become more confident in the water term on term.

Accreditation

All our courses have been professionally and especially designed by the Swimtastic team. Our courses have the approval of our affiliates; Swim Ireland, STA (UK) and Birthlight.

A family swim club

At Swimtastic we pride ourselves on providing swimming programmes for all ages and abilities.