British Swimming is relaunching under the name and brand identity of Aquatics GB to begin a new era of ambition and unity across British aquatic sport, both in and out of the water.
With each of the five disciplines of swimming, diving, para-swimming, artistic swimming and water polo achieving unprecedented success on the biggest of sporting stages over recent years, the move to Aquatics GB will serve to better represent and reflect the breadth of sports, teams, athletes, staff and experience that make up the organisation and its remit to deliver inspirational performances at the top of the sport.
The new brand also heralds the start of a new strategy with a stated purpose of propelling British aquatic sport forward competitively, commercially and societally. The delivery of this purpose will ultimately bring the national aquatics community together through world-class performances, increased engagement with fans and a shared passion for water.
The bold new Aquatics GB brand look will be on show at the London Aquatics Centre next week at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships (previously named the British Swimming Championships), which will see a landmark, fully-integrated para-swimming and swimming schedule running across both heats and finals sessions from 2nd-7th April. There will be live broadcast coverage of that event across BBC Sport and Channel 4, while live coverage of the Aquatics GB Diving Championships has also been confirmed for later this year.
The decision to become Aquatics GB involved consultation with athletes and support staff across multiple disciplines and departments, as well as key stakeholders including our Home Nations partners at Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales, with the Aquatics GB Board signing off on a move which kickstarts a six-month period that will see our top-level athletes aiming for Paralympic and Olympic glory in Paris.
Speaking on the launch, Aquatics GB CEO Drew Barrand said: "This is such an exciting moment in the history of our organisation, as we become Aquatics GB and take on a name and identity that truly reflects the variety of this National Governing Body.
"The new name and brand has been created to provide a unifying platform, bringing together all of our aquatic sports and everyone involved in them unlike ever before.
"In the past three years alone, we have seen our divers register historic achievements and our best-ever results at a World Championships, multiple athletes on our para-swimming team become both Paralympic and world champion and our swimming team achieve their greatest medal haul in British Olympic history. At the same time, we have broken into the world's leading nations in artistic swimming, burst back on to the international water polo scene and climbed back to the World Championship summit in high diving.
"Bringing together the greatness that each and every person in our organisation strives for is crucial, and we are aiming to see that collaboration not only drive us forward in the water, but also to break through to new audiences and continue to make a difference in inspiring people into the life-giving values that aquatic sports offer.
"Seeing the new name launch is one thing – but when the athletes dive into the London Aquatics Centre pool next Tuesday for day one of the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, and we see the new brand all over that iconic venue, it will feel like a truly special moment."
The new brand identity features core master colours that are a twist on the traditional red, white and blue, often in a marbling fashion that mirrors the movement of colour through water. Each discipline then also has its own individual discipline colour: diving - pink; para-swimming - green; swimming - purple; artistic swimming - blue; water polo - light blue.
Please note: Aquatics GB is the trading name of British Swimming Ltd.