What is Lifesaving Sport?
Lifesaving sport showcases the real-world rescue skills that save lives, with competition built on speed, strength, and teamwork.
Pool
Competition
Pool lifesaving focuses on precision, speed and technique, using controlled environments to practise rescue skills like manikin carries, obstacle swims and line throws. It’s all about refining the fundamentals that underpin real-world rescue.
Ocean
Competition
Ocean lifesaving showcases the full breadth of surf skills, navigating waves, reading conditions and working with rescue craft, through endurance-based events that mirror the challenges lifesavers face in open water.
Events & Disciplines
Ocean
Surf swimming, board paddling and ski racing
Pool Rescue
Manikin carries, obstacle swims, line throws, medleys and relays
IRB Racing
Inflatable Rescue Boat racing simulates real-world rescue where crews navigate surf conditions to rescue ‘patients’
Beach Flags & Sprints
Sprints rewards the first across the line and flags eliminate competitors one by one until only the fastest remains
Surf Boats
Crews power through the break, row out to the buoys, sweep around the cans and race back to the beach
The Faces of Lifesaving Sport
Our athletes are elite competitors who combine world-class athletic performance with genuine life saving skills – champions who can save lives.
Shogo Horie
World Champion | Japan
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Beach Flags
Club: Katsuura LSC
Won the Men’s Beach Flags at the Lifesaving World Championships 2024 and was crowned Australian champion at the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships of the same year.
Nina Holt
World Champion & Olympian | Germany
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Pool
Club: DLRG Harsewinkel
Olympic swimmer, World Champion, holder of four world records and multiple World Games and European Championships medallist.
Lana Rogers
World Champion | Australia
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Beach
Club: BMD Northcliffe LSC
Champion Australian Ironwoman who has won multiple Iron Series titles. Won gold in the Oceanwoman and Open Surf Race at the Lifesaving World Championships 2024.
Kacper Majchrzak
World Champion | Poland
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Pool
Club: Poland
Broke the world record on the way to being crowned World Champion in the men’s 200m obstacle at the Lifesaving World Championships in 2024. Won gold at The World Games 2025 in the Men’s 100m Rescue Medley.
Jake Hutton
World Champion | South Africa
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Beach Flags, Beach Sprints
Club: Clifton LSC
Secured back-to-back World Champion youth titles in both Beach Flags and Beach Sprints at Lifesaving World Championships 2024.
Anna Abravanel
World Champion | France
World Titles: 4
Discipline: Beach
Club: France
Won the gold medal in the Women’s Beach Flags at the Lifesaving World Championships 2024.
Road to Brisbane 2032
Worldwide Reach
30M+ members globally
Gender Balanced
Men and women compete in the same events
Youth Oriented
Connects naturally with younger audiences
Social Purpose
A sport that saves lives
Start Your Journey
Join a local or national lifesaving club affiliated with your country’s ILS Member Organization. These organizations offer training, competitions (pool and ocean), and certifications.
