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 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.
One of the beneficiaries of that change of tack, noted as “medal opportunities in new 50m Olympic events“, was Lauren Cox, who after all is the last British swimmer to win a medal in a 50m stroke event with Bronze in the backstroke in Fukuoka two years ago. Not that she’s about to change he focus despite the Olympic carrot being dangled.
“I’ve never trained solely for the 50 and I’ve been able to compete with the world’s best” she said after winning that event in London. “I don’t think I should change to 50 training as that might not work. So I’m going to stick at the 100 for as long as I keep loving it.
“Because now it’s an Olympic event I need to be competitive in it so it still means something to me, but I definitely still want to keep doing the 100 because I am really good at it and I think I’ve got a long way to go.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the man who has made a career out of being very fast over one length was looking at how the new events might help him be better in the one he won silver in at the 2024 games.
“The fact that it’s in the Olympics just doubles my chances at the medals” said Ben Proud after winning the 50m butterfly British title, an event in which he was world champion in 2017. “One of the challenges is if you can podium twice in a week which I know is really tough because the 50 fly has moved on a lot since I was competitive in it but I really want to bring it back and just give it a good go”
There’s also that benefit to his bread and butter 50m freestyle to consider.
“I just think it’s going to be a really nice balance. I think I’m really interested to see what the weekly programme will be like at the Olympics, because the fly can be really used to help gauge the environment and ease yourself into the meet. I think it will be good. Last year I had spent a lot of time focusing on how does my preparation look for the one event with everything fine tuned for that. So now it’s more changing about how is it going to look for multi-events.”
Not that it’s at the front of his mind. “It’s a long time coming and I want to have some fun with it at the World Champs. We’ll make the decision in about three years’ time.”
For those at the start of their international careers, it’s a entirely different prospect with a chance now to shape an Olympic career around sprinting. Max Morgan won the 50m breaststroke at the British Championships which, in combination with his runners up spot in the 100m, helped secure his senior international debut. He was most excited at the prospect of focussing down in distance. “I was really happy [at the inclusion of the 50s in LA], especially now I can probably focus on the 50 and the 100 more, maybe leave the 200” he said, albeit acknowledging he still needs to check in with mentor Craig Gibbons on that decision “I’ll see with my coach.”
Meanwhile those with realistic prospects in the classic programme still had an eye on the sprints too, perhaps realising they could help their prime targets. For example, reflecting on improvement needed to her start after a British Record in the 100m breaststroke, Angharad Evans referenced the potential carrot in the one length events. “Adding 50s in the Olympics – that dive is so crucial so that’s definitely going to be a main point for me to work on.” Improvements there no doubt bringing dividends in the preferred 100m event.
How Aquatics GB will approach those events will probably not become entirely clear until the selection policy for the 2027 world championships is released, with next year’s European championships coinciding with Commonwealth year, and perhaps diluting selection considerations. If they indicate, in funding announcements for example, that they are being taken seriously, as the team announcement for Singapore suggests they will be, then that might pique the interest of the likes of Imogen Clark who has been a world class 50m breaststroke swimmer in a world where the 100m was king for some time. It will be a very interesting transition to watch.