James Guy had a great start to the World Championships in Kazan with silver in the 400m freestyle on the opening day, behind Olympic Champion Sun Yang. And then came the 200m freestyle. What could the young man from Millfield achieve?
It was a home games with all the focus that comes with being the host falling on Britain’s swimmers in London. For many that proved to be too much, but for Michael Jamieson, it was very much a case of cometh the hour, cometh the man.
When Britain had last won the 100m breastroke gold medal at the Olympics it was as tight as it could possibly have been, Adrian Moorhouse touching out his rivals by just one one-hundredth of a second. Come 2016 and the comparison could not have been more stark as Adam Peaty demolished his rivals.
It may not be the best swim that Francesca Halsall produced and it certainly wasn’t the fastest 50m freestyle. But context is important and this swim rescued the world championships for GB.
Look back to a particular balmy night in Athens, and you see Steve Parry lining up in lane 4, the fastest qualifier in the Olympic final of the 200m butterfly. A little over 24 hours earlier he was almost at rock bottom, the 16th qualifier from heats and yet here he was shooting for gold. 16 years on from that final how have his recollections changed, and did he really think he could have beaten Michael Phelps?