Brussels Octopus

The Team

The ESB Swimming Team (or Brussels Octopus) is the swimming team of the European Schools of Brussels (Uccle, Berkendael, Woluwé, Ixelles, and Laeken).

Established in 1984, it is open to all the pupils of the Schools who qualify for competitive swimming. We promote good sportsmanship, teamwork and healthy competition.
With its 50 swimmers the ESB Swimming Team participates to the Championship of the EFSL, and competes with swimming teams throughout Europe.

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The EFSL

The European Forces Swim League is formed by swimming teams of the US Forces, Nato and European Union. They include young swimmers of the primary and secondary cycles of education. The EFSL is not competitive with, nor to draw participants away from, local competitive swim programmes such as national or regional championships.

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History of the team

The Team was established in 1984, and the following year joined the ISST (International Schools Sports Tournament) Championship, competing with other international schools of Brussels.

In 1995 the Team went even more international and joined the EFSL. The majority of the competitions we participate in are organised in Northern Europe (Belgium, Netherland, Germany, the UK), but long-distance meets and finals are organised with a rotation principle in any European country where there is a Team affiliated to the EFSL. The EFSL Championship runs every year from August till February, but the ESB Swimming Team participates only to competitions from mid September on.
Early in September we organise a non-residential pre-competition intensive training scheme, running over two consecutive week-ends. This is essential for swimmers after the summer break, and includes also non-swimming activities.

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News

Splash 2013

Submitted by octopus on Tue, 19/03/2013 - 17:42

Bravo to the 16 swimmers who brilliantly represented our team, beating the record from 2006.
The "Seniors" swam 216 lengths, or 5400m, which is 350m more than the previous record.
Another record broken: over 1000€ was collected in sponsorship money for the associations "La Ferme Nos Pilifs" & "'t Vosje".
Many congratulations to everyone for this exploit!

Thanks for a great Divisional meet !

Submitted by Marco L. on Mon, 04/02/2013 - 08:37

Sunday the 27th January we had a great Divisionals meet, where we hosted our friends Marlins, Orcas, Barracudas and Seals. Our swimmers were great and we classified as the second Team in our Division (in 2012 we classified 5th). Congratulations, Octopus !!
Site members can see photos of the event at this link.

Read more about Thanks for a great Divisional meet !

WANTED : SWIMMING COACHES

Submitted by octopus on Mon, 10/12/2012 - 18:40

The ESB Swimming Team is growing bigger, 40% more swimmers this season. We are therefore looking for 2 new coaches (1M, 1W) to help in organising our swimmers during competitions running over some week-ends from September to February and to train some of these swimmers during regular training. Competitions are organised in Belgium and abroad.
Required profile: licensed physical education teacher or certified ADEPS in swimming (or equivalent) with previous swimming team experience (pre-competition or competition). Languages: FR, EN.