Pull. Breathe. Kick. Glide … the cautionary tale of the first cross-Channel swimmer | Emma John

In this content-driven age, we consume sport as fleeting entertainment – but the fate of Captain Matthew Webb suggests we always have Pull. Breathe. Kick. Glide. Three decades since my last swimming lesson, I found myself sitting in a lecture theatre chanting these words with a few dozen strangers, all of us trying not