Swimming instructor to the stars on the French Riviera

PIERRE GRUNEBERG: 1931 - 2023

Pierre Gruneberg, who has died aged 92, fled Nazi Germany as a boy and went on to enjoy a gilded life as resident swimming coach of the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat for 70 years, becoming the instructor of choice for aquaphobic celebrities and billionaires.

The pupils he oversaw in his cliff-edge pool on the French Riviera ranged from Charlie Chaplin and Somerset Maugham to Aristotle Onassis and Mark Zuckerberg by way of Tina Turner, Brigitte Bardot, David Niven, Roger Moore, Elizabeth Taylor and Bono.

It was Gruneberg’s boast that he could teach anybody to swim, no matter how trepidatious. He emphasised that confidence in the water came from learning to breathe correctly, and to this end taught what he called la méthode de Gruneberg, which he had devised in 1953.

Pierre Gruneberg, the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat’s legendary swimming instructor. Credit: Facebook

Pupils would initially be instructed in strengthening their breath hold by sucking at a ping-pong ball through a length of hosepipe, before being presented with a salad bowl full of water in which they would dunk their heads and practise breathing gently out through the nose.

Gruneberg was attentive to the whims of his glittering clientele, recalling that he had to swim in circles round Paul McCartney when the ex-Beatle went into the sea, to keep a watch for jellyfish; he did the same for Robin Williams, whose aversion was to sharks.

Gruneberg owed much of his success to a genial, reassuring manner that made pupils trust him even while he had one foot unceremoniously on their backs to keep them underwater.

Gruneberg spent his summers on the Riviera and in the winter worked as a ski guide in Courchevel, continuing in both jobs until he was 90. He was also a professional physiotherapist and masseur, serving in that role with the French contingent at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Among those he could claim to have pummelled were Elton John and George H. W. Bush.

He did his best to remain unimpressed by his more famous clients, observing that “every man is created equal when he’s wearing nothing but his swimming trunks”.

Grüneberg was born into a German Jewish family in Cologne on March 6, 1931; his father was a lawyer and his mother a teacher. In the mid-1930s his older brother won a race at school, only for fellow pupils, members of the Hitler Youth, to throw stones at him and demand he be disqualified as a Jew. Their mother promptly took the children to live in Paris. Their father initially thought this an over-reaction and stayed behind, but later hurriedly joined them.

In 1950, after taking his swimming coach exams, the 19-year-old Gruneberg hitchhiked from Paris to the Riviera. He searched for a hotel that had a pool – “I didn’t want to spend my days waist deep in the sea” – and pitched up at the Grand-Hôtel, where the manager, André Voyenne, agreed to give him an interview.

In the 1980s he began to spend part of the year touring upmarket hotels in Britain offering swimming classes, which led to a considerable boost in his international reputation, aided by his status as a link with the lost glamour of the post-war Côte d’Azur.

Gruneberg, who was usually seen sporting one of a distinctive array of conical straw hats, owned two battered Citroën 2CVs – “the greatest treat I can give famous people is a ride in a deux-chevaux ... Bryan Adams was absolutely thrilled” – although visiting journalists found his driving more haphazard than his swimming.

Despite his good looks and charm, Gruneberg claimed to be too shy to approach women at his own initiative, and got to know both of his wives through teaching them to swim.

The Telegraph, London.

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