It wasn’t quite all everyone was talking about at the British Championships, but the announcement that 50m form events would be added to the programme for the 2028 Olympics was certainly on the mind of many of Britain’s top swimmers. Indeed, it even seems to have had an immediate impact on Aquatics GB who referenced it in their rationale for discretionary selection for this years World Championships even though for understandable reasons it was not part of the original selection policy. Here’s what some winners at the British Championships thought of the change.
If you’re the reigning world champion and have just finished fourth in the Olympics, a finger tip away from the podium then it might be expected that you’d be back chasing success in that event the following season. But for Freya Colbert a change is as good as a rest in 2025, even if the 400IM remains on her programme for the World Championships.
When Ollie Morgan touched the wall in the 100m Backstroke at the British Championships last week he had smashed the British Record and his time of 52.12 had elevated him to becoming the 13th fastest man all time. It was a swim that rightly took all the plaudits but behind him there was a wave coming, one that speaks to an increasing depth in British men’s backstroke.
2481 days. That was how long it had been since his last competitive 400m freestyle when James Guy stepped on the block at the City of Sheffield Winter meet to race the event again. It was a bit lower key than the previous swim which had seen a Commonwealth Bronze medal on the Gold Coast, but it marked the start of a return to the event for the man who remains the British Record holder and who will now take the blocks for 8 lengths of the London Aquatic centre at the forthcoming British Championships.
For several years the writers at SwimSwam have put their heads together and set about picking their top 100 male and female swimmers for the year ahead based both on performance historically and potential looking forward. It remains interesting to review the lists with a GB focus and to see what those looking in from outside make of the British swimming scene, so here’s a look at this year’s outcomes.
