The purpose of this study was to explore the application of swimming education in elementary physical education based on the experiences of pre-service elementary teachers and a teacher educator. At a swimming class during the second semester of 2017, the teacher educator observed the participation of the pre-service teachers and completed an interview, a report, and four sessions of descriptive questionnaire. The data were analyzed by Spradley’s method to construct narratives. The results of the study are as follows. The class was characterized by the following six narratives: innovative swimming classes, swimming lessons with video・explanation・demonstration・guidance courses, swimming lessons to teach the basics, swimming lessons to enhance competence as a learner and leader, out-of-box swimming lessons, and memorable swimming lessons. The pre-service teachers created different narratives according to their swimming level. Those who had not had swimming experience or did not swim well talked about survival swimming, experience, collaboration with professional instructors, and institutional support. On the other hand, those who had had swimming experience or were good at swimming shared emotional sense of swimming, professionalism, direct teacher guidance, and teacher enthusiasm. Finally, both the pre-service teachers and the teacher educators suggested that more in-depth discussion is needed for swimming lessons in teacher education, swimming lessons with a swimming pool, and swimming lessons with teacher responsibility.