Enchong Dee claimed to have broken a Guinness World Record in teaching more than a thousand Filipino children basic swimming skills in Pampanga.
In an Instagram post on June 23, Dee said he taught around 1,800 Filipino children basic swimming and water safety skills at the Aqua Planet water park, at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga to pursue his advocacy.
“Today, we broke the Guinness world record for the most number of Children being taught basic swimming skills and water safety in one day,” the actor said in the caption.
Based on Guinness’ website, the title of the world’s largest swimming lesson in a single venue was achieved by 1,308 people of the World Waterpark Association on June 20, 2014, at Sun-N-Fun Lagoon in Florida, United States.
As of press time, no representative from Guinness has yet to confirm Dee’s record-breaking feat.
Such event was part of the Kapamilya star’s advocacy project “Handog Palangoy ni Enchong” wherein he aims to teach indigent Filipino children how to swim.
Dee started this project in May 2016 with only 50 children. The participants of the swimming lessons eventually grew over time.
Dee said before that he launched this initiative as a way to pay tribute to his late swimming instructor whom he calls Coach Caloy.
Enchong Dee’s swimming days
Dee’s penchant for swimming goes way back when he was a student-athlete at the De La Salle University. He earned a gold medal at a men’s swimming competition.
He said in a speech that he once dreamed of representing the country at the Olympics, but the dream was set aside for show business.
“I have to remind myself why I did this 10 years ago,” Dee said.
While not as prestigious as competing at the Olympics, Dee was still able to compete at national sports events in his spare time.
In August 2018, he was reportedly stung by jellyfish during the swimming leg of the Regent Aguila Ironman 70.3 Asia-Pacific Championships but was still able to beat his personal record.
