---
title: "Aquatics International: Champion Swimmers Find Success Running Swim Schools"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/95f039c7-4cee-4bed-a82e-0ae396cf03d9
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/aquatics-international-champion-swimmers-find-success-running-swim-schools-2709243
category: "Fitness"
industry: "Fitness"
published: 2019-12-24T06:01:28.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:30:54.909Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/5dc8f9a19ee557b9b934fc2bca1363823365.jpg
---

# Aquatics International: Champion Swimmers Find Success Running Swim Schools

**TL;DR:** Big Blue Swim School, a swim school franchise, has expanded to five Chicagoland locations and plans to open 150 locations by 2020. The franchise offers modern and parent-friendly facilities and an app for parents to track their children's progress.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2019-12-24. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/aquatics-international-champion-swimmers-find-success-running-swim-schools-2709243).*

## Story

Big Blue Swim School, a swim school franchise founded by U.S. National Swim Team member Chris DeJong and competitive swimmer John Lonergan, is opening its fifth Chicagoland location.

Gone are the days of bland colors and old-school swim schools. Dejong describes his facilities as the “Apple Store” of swim schools, meaning that each location is unique in its own way, with a parent-friendly aesthetic and modern, open spaces to provide room for families outside of the pool. The schools will also have an app for parents, which will allow them to track their children’s progress and schedule classes at the same time.

As for development, Big Blue Swim School is using franchising opportunities as their key tool for expansion, planning to open 150 locations by 2020. The franchise will be opening five locations in Denver later this year.

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- unit expansion (topic)
- Fitness (sector)
- franchising (topic)
- Denver (location)
- Big Blue Swim School (company)
- Apple (company)
- Chris DeJong (person)
- Chicagoland (location)
- swim schools (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/aquatics-international-champion-swimmers-find-success-running-swim-schools-2709243). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/95f039c7-4cee-4bed-a82e-0ae396cf03d9).