Two years ago, after a stellar set of performances at the Commonwealth Games, Mark Foster said that Britain’s swimmers had to deal with going from “good to great”, and he was blown away by their performance in Rio.
When pullbuoy spoke to Great Britain Head Coach Bill Furniss at the end of 2015 we asked him what a successful Olympics would be for him and the GB team. His answer was not medals, but a meet where the team delivered their best performance of the year. He wanted the squad to provide a season’s best percentage of 60% and if they did that then the medals would look after themselves. So how did the team fare?
Eight days of competition in the pool came to a close with Britain’s best performance at an Olympics since 1908. Six medal secured, comprising one gold and five silvers, gives Bob, Katie and Steve plenty to ponder in this Rio roundup.
We’re halfway through the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and already it’s been a fantastic meet for Britain. Plenty therefore for Katie, Bb and Steve to discuss on this halfway round up.
Meet Britain's Olympic swimming team and see what events they will each swim in Rio. Click on any picture to launch the slideshow and check out our day by day guide to see when they swim.
400m individual medley and 200m Butterfly
200m breaststroke
200m individual medley, 4 x 200m freestyle relay
The Men’s Medley relay narrowly missed the podium two years ago but won silver in Rio. Chris Walker Hebborn will lead off as they look to win another global meal on the final Sunday, (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke
1500m freestyle
They’ll be helped by Duncan Scott who goes into the meet world ranked number one in the 100m freestyle. That final is on Thursday. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
4 x 200m freestyle relay
100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke
Another top ranked Brit is Ben Proud who heads the world over 50m freestyle. He’ll go for that on Saturday, while he also has a strong chance in the 50m butterfly which has its final on Monday. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
Adam Peaty won two individual golds in Kazan – he’ll be a strong favourite in both 50 and 100m breaststroke events.. The sprint final is on Wednesday while… (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
O’Connor also swam the fly leg of the mixed medley which won gold in a world record in 2015. They face perhaps a tougher task to repeat that feat in the final on Wednesday. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
100m breaststroke
400m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay
Hannah Miley will look to turn fourth in Rio into precious metal this year – she goes into the 400IM on the final day of competition, an event she is ranked third heading into the competition. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
200m Individual Medley, 4 x 200m freestyle relay
Max Litchfield was also fourth in the 400m Individual medley in Rio – he’ll need to drop a big British record to make the podium in the final on the last night. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
200m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay
800m freestyle, 4 x 200m freestyle relay
50m freestyle, 4 x 100m medley relay
Guy will also defend his 200m freestyle world title in Tuesday’s final. (Pic: Simone Castrovillari)
