I wouldn't characterize that video as "strong swimming ability". Obviously he could swim, and if the media is straight lying about him being able to swim at all, that might be a red herring.
Treat water with respect, it can very quickly become very dangerous. Children can drown in an inch of water. There was a USA swimmer who died in an open water race over a decade ago now, Fran Crippen. His body was found 500 yards from shore in a 10k race.
https://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/news/story?id=5718372
I wouldn't characterize that video as "strong swimming ability". Obviously he could swim, and if the media is straight lying about him being able to swim at all, that might be a red herring.
Treat water with respect, it can very quickly become very dangerous. Children can drown in an inch of water. There was a USA swimmer who died in an open water race over a decade ago now, Fran Crippen. His body was found 500 yards from shore in a 10k race. https://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/news/story?id=5718372
I think is an open question
From the twitter thread the guy shows a screenshot and the screenshot DOES NOT CLAIM he couldn't swim. https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1683629201792933888/photo/1
it's a quote from the State Police statement.
They are not claiming he couldn't swim. And this is a police statement which often are unusually formal. This is just what a witness observed.
The twitter poster then makes this massive jump to a conclusion.
“Appeared to briefly struggle and did not resurface.” - this would indicate he could not swim and was unable to stay afloat.
No it doesn't. There's lot of other things that could have happened here as you point out.