Britain’s swimmers head to Barcelona this summer to compete in a World Championships. 10 years ago their predecessors did the same, winning a record haul of 8 medals including two golds. Featuring exclusive new interviews with every medallist, this is the story of how those medals were won, in the words of the swimmers who won them.

As the refurbished Tollcross pool in Glasgow, which will host the Commonwealth Games in 2014, prepares to reopen to the public, Robbie Renwick believes that the home crowd inside the venue will spur him on to retain the title he won in back in 2010.

The Scottish swimmer won 200m freestyle gold in Delhi three years ago, and will bid to defend it in Glasgow.
The 24-year-old was speaking at the launch of this year’s Bank of Scotland Local Heroes scheme from the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, which will also be a Games venue, and he believes the experience of competing for Team GB at London 2012 will stand him in good stead for the pressures of Glasgow.

“We have been really fortunate to have a home Olympics and now a home Commonwealth Games so it is really exciting for us,” he said. “I live and train in Glasgow and everyone is getting really excited for the Olympic Games. There is a real buzz around town and it is a really motivating factor day in, day out.

“Having the experience of a home crowd at the London Olympics I am definitely going to use that for the Commonwealth Games next year.

“Whether it is making a final, getting on the podium or winning the gold medal everyone has their own goals in mind and for me it is getting on that podium and winning my gold medal back.”

As part of Bank of Scotland’s London 2012 legacy, Bank of Scotland Local Heroes, in partnership with SportsAid, will provide support and funding to 82 emerging Scottish athletes in 2013. Over 220 Local Heroes have benefited from the programme since 2008. Follow Scotland’s future stars at facebook.com/bankofscotlandlocalheroes

Endurance. It’s something I used to have back when I thought of myself as a “proper” swimmer rather than the land-lubbing has-been I am now. So when Speedo posed the “Keep Going Swim After Swim Challenge” to try out their new Endurance+ suits, it was a good excuse to dust off the goggles and get back in the pool on a more regular basis.

Back in the day suits that lasted under the demands placed on them by competitive training were in the minority. Indeed in my squad the further down the saggy bottom of your trunks hung the better, almost like a badge of honour. And then when the Lycra was see through you just added another pair underneath like some sort of tree growing rings of bark – you could almost tell how long a swimmer had been training by the number of suits they were wearing. Nowadays you’d just wear a drag suit, but then the drag was provided by a parachute made of 3 pairs of baggy trunks. Sure there were nylon suits available and they lasted but they were dull and itchy and they never came in the cool colours and styles that you got in Lycra so they were always left in the bottom of the drawer.

Now it should be said at this point that I’m not a blind Speedo devotee – over 25 years my swimming wardrobe has encompassed almost every major brand from Adidas to Maru, via Diana, Kiefer, Tyr and Arena, but the fact remains that in my experience, the Endurance range has lasted the best. My Endurance trunks also withstood the corrosive effects of the chlorinated salt water at North Sydney pool for two years, an environment that seemed to dissolve other materials in a matter of weeks.

So I had high hopes for the Endurance+ range, even if some of the claims seemed a little spurious, for example improved colour fastness – possibly a factor for a leisure swimmer, but not normally top of the competitive swimming agenda. The other claims were perhaps more interesting. Quicker drying – useful if you’ve got two sessions in a day perhaps, but any difference was marginal to be fair, and they still don’t dry if you leave them wrapped up in a wet towel in the bottom of your bag. Now that would be an innovation worth having.

But the main thing, is do they last? After only a month it’s hard to draw any meaningful conclusions, but the suit does look like new and is still stretchy. Based on my experience with the predecessor range, I’d expect the new suits to last for ages – given the prices they need to – and that for the regular swimmer has to be the biggest consideration. If you’re buying your own training suits, you could do far worse than Endurance+, and if you’re training daily they’re almost essential kit. As for my endurance, it still has a long way to go to to catch up with the trunks

Bill Furniss. Photo GBSwimstars

The next era of British Swimming starts in earnest this week as Bill Furniss takes up his post as head coach on Tuesday with Chris Spice joining him as National Performance Director a week later. The duo, appointed in the aftermath of a review into an underwhelming performance at London 2012 have been tasked with implementing the recommendations of that review in seeking to re-invigorate Britain’s performance at the global level.

Many of these recommendations remain abstract inasmuch as they refer to generating an environment that leads to improved elite performance, but others have more direct actions associated with them. The timing of trials is already one significant change this year, but other areas slated to be addressed under the new regime include a clearer strategy for relays, dealing with the impact of social media and increasing the mentoring of coaches through on-deck presence.

But there will be some difficult decisions to be made, given the drop in UK Sport funding that the sport received as a result of its Olympic performance. Already there have been rumblings about cuts in direct funding to swimmers, notably the current status of Adam Brown, who has seen all funding removed, he says, in direct response to his decision to base himself back in the US at his Auburn alma mater. With swimmers increasingly looking to base themselves in overseas programmes, quite apart from those headed to America, Brown’s 2012 team-mate Craig Gibbons is now training in Dubai for example, this is an issue that will have to be addressed and policy made clear.

The other early hot potato will be the future of the ITC system and in particular the fate of Swansea and Stirling, both of whom have only had their status renewed until the end of the year. The latter was boosted this week by the recruitment of 100m breaststroke British Record holder Dan Sliwinksi and the return to the pool of 2012 Olympian Rob Bale, who retired after London but who has strapped on his goggles once more.

Neither should be expected to feature in the GB team this year though; Sliwinksi is still recovering from the shoulder surgery that kept him out of the Olympics, while Bale has to complete 6 months of out-of-competition drug testing before he will be eligible to compete again. The Commonwealth Games in 2014 are hence their primary aim, but whether they have an ITC to train at remains to be seen. The decision will undoubtedly be a difficult one, politically if nothing else, but resources will need to be optimised.

Furniss comes with a weighty reputation and vast experience in swimming, an area that Spice is perhaps lacking, having moved from British Basketball. It’s fair to say that not everyone in basketball was sad to see him leaving, although the timing of his appointment, with basketball having just learnt it would receive no lottery funding at all, may have coloured many people’s opinions. It will be vital that these two forge a positive working partnership, drawing on their individual strengths, if they are to be successful.

The post-Olympic review did not signal any fundamental issues with the British Swimming system, but against a background of a cut in funding, Furniss and Spice now have to put their stamp on the sport and implement the necessary tweaks to bounce back from disappointment in 2012. Certainly all British swimming followers will be hoping for an excellent adventure and that this next episode doesn’t turn into Bill and Chris’s Bogus Journey.

It had already been widely reported that the ITC network was under threat, what with each centre reportedly receiving between £200,000 and £700,000 in annual funding, with 2 or even 3 centres potentially earmarked for closure. Last week Stockport became the first victim, having its ITC status removed.

Meanwhile Swansea and Stirling were handed a stay of execution, with their contracts being renewed only until December 2013, when all options will be considered, giving the new British National Performance Director Chris Spice and head coach Bill Furniss the opportunity to implement their own ideas.

But regardless of any reduction in overall funding to the sport, the ITC model was always likely to be shaken up in the wake of the 2012 performance debrief, which concluded that ITCs provided “a truly world class daily training environment and excellent levels of access to support services” but raised questions about their cost effectiveness.

In particular the ITCs were challenged over their role in knowledge sharing down the chain to clubs and the amount of time the squads spent training offshore, given those excellent environments available in the UK. More fundamentally the review raised the significant question of whether “Britain has enough high quality swimmers to furnish all five centres” – a precursor to a decision to consolidate the network,

Not that the overall impact of the programme in performance terms is being doubted. In 2012, 19 of the Olympic team hailed from ITC programmes, while 10 of 18 individual finalists were from an ITC squad, although the network has not been so successful in medal terms on the global stage, Loughborough excepted.

But why Stockport? The programme has been hit hard since London by swimmer departures. David Carry retired, and his marriage to Kerri-anne Payne precipitated her departure to the Warrender Baths club in Edinburgh. Meanwhile Sophie Allen upped sticks to join the Bath ITC, saying only that Stockport was not for her, and Michael Rock opted to return to his childhood club at City of Liverpool. That left the centre with only 4 swimmers, James Goddard, Harry Needs, Russell Smith and new recruit Lauren Quiqley, who recently moved the short distance from City of Manchester. All are reported to have committed to the programme under Sean Kelly, whether as part of the ITC or in the Stockport Metro club setup.

Despite this, and while ITCs have only been in existence since 2008, when they formally opened their doors after Beijing, the Stockport programme has been one of the most successful in the UK since the establishment of select club funding, delivering three Olympic medals (one silver and two bronze), so there was surprise that it was first to go.

There are many who see this as a political move, with rumours that Stockport was not the worst performing ITC under British Swimming’s own criteria. On paper Stirling may seem to be the weakest of the five, supplying only one swimmer to the 2012 Olympic team, while Swansea, which had previously been mentioned as a potential closure target, supplied two. That both of these continue to operate at least in the short term will be seen in some quarters as a concession to the Scottish and Welsh ASA’s who would otherwise be left without an ITC.

Both Swansea and Stirling are home to swimmers who would be expected to make their respective Commonwealth Games teams for 2014, and the national ASA’s may need to step in with funding if their income from the ITC network is stopped. The current uncertainty makes budget planning from now until 2014 difficult for both governing bodies.

Certainly those in Stirling are feeling the pressure, realising that they need to impress the new management although one member of staff said they were “confident of being able to do so”, while also suggesting that their squad could do with a “marquee” or high profile swimmer, the lack of which being a potential weakness of the programme in overall British terms.

Meanwhile, and despite the fate of the ITC, Stockport Metro will continue to battle on, although funding remains a concern. “No funding at all would be a worry, but we aim to hold it together as we did before we were an ITC”, a club source said. “We won 4 individual Olympic medals prior to becoming an ITC, which I believe makes us the most successful GB programme in those terms, and we can do it again.”

The swimmers featured were not obscure and anyone with any interest in British swimming should have been able to identify all 5 (albeit that younger fans may have struggled with some of the vintage swimmers), but the scores say quite a lot for the profile of swimming in the UK. Mind you, it’s not all bad, previous editions of the show have had fewer than 60 people being able to name the British Prime Minister…See how many you can get.

Rebecca Adlington: about to hang up her goggles?

The coming week could prove to be one of the most important in the recent history of British Swimming, with two key announcements to be made. Both could have profound impacts on how the sport travels the two years to Glasgow 2014 and then on to Rio in 2016.

Undoubtedly British Swimming were hoping that their coming announcement of a new National Performance Director and head coach would be the main story of the week, but that wish was swiftly torpedoed by Rebecca Adlington calling a press conference to make a “major announcement”.

That language quickly sent speculation over her retirement soaring into the stratosphere, but the reality is that an end to her competitive swimming career is the most credible outcome. It has been reported that Adlington intends to devote herself to developing a swimming academy and attempting to get more people swimming, both worthy aims.

It’s clear that Adlington’s future in the sport has been been in a state of flux from the moment she left the 800m podium in London and embarked on a well deserved and long overdue break from the daily training grind. In her appearance on the BBC’s Superstars filmed late in 2012 she confirmed she had not recommenced full training, indicating she may bypass this year’s world championships, while she had already ruled herself out of a third Olympics. That left the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games as a tantalising carrot for a farewell performance, but the prospect of that has become more remote in parallel with British Swimming’s ongoing search for a head coach.

Adlington has already stated she would be unlikely to swim with a coach other than Bill Furniss, who has guided her from a teenager through her most successful years, but the Nova Centurion supremo is widely expected to be unveiled as British Swimming’s new head coach next week. That role probably would take him away from dealing with Adlington in a day-to-day basis, only adding more fuel to the retirement rumours.

Not that the head coach search has gone completely smoothly. It’s understood that there were only four applications for the post, and only two were deemed worthy of an interview. Furniss, who has been endorsed by many high profile suppoters is expected to have gotten the nod.

Who he’ll have to work with as NPD is less clear. John Atkinson was a name linked strongly to the position, but he took on the same role with Canadian Swimming this week. It’s understood that another high profile candidate, Chris Nesbitt wasn’t interviewed and that Tim Jones, the early favourite, may opt to stay at gymnastics given their increased funding after a successful Olympic campaign.

There have been few other credible candidates discussed publicly but four were interviewed for the position and the outcome will be revealed this week.

Whoever gets the job, one of their first jobs should be to rebuild some bridges with Adlington. Relations between her and the governing body, particularly chief executive David Sparkes, have been strained of late, but Adlington remains as the public face of the sport to the majority of Britons, and cutting her adrift, even in retirement, would be a foolish move. If nothing else her worth as a mentor to up and coming athletes should not be overlooked.

Whatever the outcomes of the two big announcements this week, they will shape the sport in both the short and long terms of this Olympic cycle. Those who follow swimming in Britain will watch on with keen interest.

A key example cited in Australia is Emily Seebohm, who qualified fastest for the 100m backstroke final but finished with a silver medal, and is reported to have become overconfident after receiving numerous compliments on her semi final swim via Twitter.

Critics of a ban such as this suggest that it’s merely window dressing and that greater problems lie in the pool or on deck. There’s no doubt though, that Twitter in particular has been embraced by British swimmers, much as it has been by wider society. And as those who follow Britain’s swimmers will know, it has become a significant source of exposure for individual’s sponsors, making it a potentially important contributor to swimmer’s sponsorship income.

Furthermore, swimming fans undoubtedly enjoy hearing about the ins and outs of a major meet, as the number of followers that Britain’s Olympic team amassed demonstrates. Even those who undertook self-imposed twitter bans during the Games themselves such as Hannah Miley, enjoy huge followings.

By way of illustration, the British Olympic team from 2012 averages over 15,000 followers each with ten swimmers boasting followings in excess of 10,000. Even allowing for the significant skew that Becky Adlington’s 316,000 followers brings to the calculation, that still eaves an average of 8000 followers per swimmer. Even those who only joined twitter late in the day before the games such as Michael Rock, who has only 10 tweets to his name, have garnered significant followings; at the time of writing Rock had over 2100 followers.

British Swimmers' twitter followings; the size of the circle is proportional to the number of followers each athlete has (see the data). Only the top 11 circles are attributed. The huge difference between Becky Adlington and the rest is clearly visible. Click to enlarge

But the impact of this twitter usage on performance is not yet definitively proven, despite Seebohm’s example. Britain’s Olympic performance debrief did however feel the issue was serious enough to consider as a separate element in its review of the London showing and while it concluded that there was no strong evidence to suggest that social media had affected the team’s performance, there were several areas that the review was concerned about.

Quite apart of the potential damaging effect that twitter trolling may have on an athlete, the review was particularly concerned that use of social media by swimmers created “an image of the sport to the outside world that mediocrity is accepted within the swimming team”. This may have had potential knock on effects to other team members who may “take on the psyche that mediocre performances are acceptable by following the tone set by their peers, or that the performance outcomes are not the sole focus of the meet”

While stopping short of recommending an outright ban, the review concludes that better and compulsory training in this area be given to all team members and that appropriate protocols be developed. Whether these protocols might include a ban remains to be seen, but Australia has set a precedent in this regard which may well be followed in Britain. We could be hearing a lot less from our swimmers in Barcelona.

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Becky Adlington - Photo: GBSwimstars.com

Female swimmer of the year – Becky Adlington

It seemed like an obvious choice after London, where Becky won two bronze medals, making her Britain’s most successful swimming Olympian ever, but a late short course surge from Hannah Miley muddied the waters a little. On balance though, the way Adlington dealt with the pressure of London and emerged in credit tips the balance.

Male swimmer of the year – Michael Jamieson

Who else could it be? The Bath man was Britain’s stand-out performer in 2012, winning Olympic silver and bouncing back in the short course season with a second silver medal placing at the world championships in Istanbul. For good measure he also came second in the BBC’s ‘Superstars’ where as well as winning the gym tests he also showed a remarkable aptitude for archery.

Young athlete of the year – Matthew Johnson

In the aftermath of a disappointing Olympics, and with all eyes looking at the next generation coming through, one name kept cropping up, that of 17-year-old Matthew Johnson. And it was only fair that the City of Sheffield swimmer received those accolades following a successful showing at the European Junior Championships where he took two golds and a silver. He also made his senior international debut at the world short course championship in Istanbul.

Disability swimmer of the year – Ollie Hynd

A tough category to pick with such a successful Paralympic performance from Britain to choose from, but Ollie Hynd sneaks a tough decision. In his first Paralympics, the then 17-year-old bagged a full house of medals, which included a European record on his way to the SM8 200m IM title.

Diver of the year – Tom Daley

Chris Mears made a strong case in this category following his 5th placed finish in the 3m springboard in London, with some incredible individual scoring along the way, but with Olympic bronze there really could be only one winner, Tom Daley. Daley dealt with all sorts of distractions, both in the lead up to the competition and indeed as he left the platform at the start of the 10m final, but kept his nerve supremely to bag Britain’s only diving medal.

Waterpolo performance of the year – Fran Leighton

2012 was something of a breakthrough year for British waterpolo as both men’s and women’s teams competed at the Olympics. On the men’s side, Craig Figes as captain would get into most world class teams, while Rob Parker from Cheltenham was also a stand out performer. But the waterpolo performance of the year came from ladies’ captain Fran Leighton who led her team towards international respectability both in the lead up to London and at the games themselves. Her efforts, along with those of the squad, led to a huge boost in funding for the women’s game in the lead up to Rio 2016 and a real belief that the ladies could qualify of right next time around.

Synchronised swimmer of the year – Jenna Randall and Olivia Federici

A joint award for Britain’s duet representatives in London; Jenna and Olivia achieved the highest placed British finish for 20 years in the duet competition and also lead the synchro team to a highly creditable 6th place in the Olympic final.

Open water swimmer of the year – Dan Fogg

A straight choice between Fogg and Kerrie-anne Payne as Britain’s two Olympic competitors, both of whom placed in the top 5 in London, but the Loughborough swimmer snatches it. Leading into the games few would have pegged Fogg as having any realistic pretensions to a top 10 finish, but spurred on by a vocal home crowd, Fogg surged through the field to take a worthy 5th place in the Serpentine.

Performance of the year – Ellie Simmonds – 400m Free, London 2012

She had a lot to live up to heading into London, and could have been forgiven for becoming distracted by the publicity surrounding the classification of her biggest rival, the USA’s Victoria Arlen, but Ellie kept her composure superbly to deliver another stunning major championship performance. It was less about the victories and more about the manner of those victories as she smashed two world records on her way to a haul of 2 gold, silver and a bronze. Of those swims, her mature showing in the 400m where she tracked Arlen before sprinting away from the American in the closing stages is the performance of the year.

Inspiring club award – City of Sheffield SC

It was a close call between City of Sheffield and national league champions Plymouth Leander, who also had a strong 2012. But it was a fine year for the self-styled “Team Steel” who placed numerous swimmers into national teams at all levels. Under the leadership of Russ Barber the Yorkshire club is starting to grow into its home at Ponds Forge.

Splosh star – BERT LE CLOS!

If you looked outside the pool in London there’s no doubt who was the biggest star of the games, Chad Le Clos’ dad Bert. Bert captivated the nation with his heart-warming interview with Clare Balding shortly after Chad had pipped Michael Phelps to the 200m fly title. He was a model of paternal pride and naturally funny with it – an absolute star!

David Davies

Lifetime Achievement – David Davies

He only hung up his goggles a few moths ago, but David Davies has been the stand out British male swimmer of the past decade. Since exploding onto the global stage with a 4th placed finish at the 2003 world championships in Barcelona, Davies has won medals at every level, including Olympic silver and bronze, two world bronzes and the Commonwealth title in 2006. Injury may have curtailed his later years, but Davies was a superb role model for younger swimmers and a testament to what hard work and determination can achieve.