With Olympic year on the horizon, 35 swimmers have been named to round off 2023 at the European Short Course Swimming Championships in Bucharest, Romania next month – including every medallist from this year’s World Aquatics Championships.
The majority of the team for the Bucharest event - which will take place from 5th-10th December - were part of the group that took eight medals at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka back in July, with almost all of the remainder having competed at August’s European Under-23 Championships in Dublin.
The last major international short course outing for Great Britain’s athletes came at the 2022 World Short Course Championships, with the athletes there securing four medals out in Melbourne – while the most recent European Short Course Championships to have British involvement was on home soil in 2019 in Glasgow.
Tom Dean is the only athlete to have taken medals across all three of those competitions in Fukuoka, Melbourne and Glasgow, and the 23-year-old is once again set to feature this time around, alongside all three of his Olympic and Worlds Men’s 4x200m Freestyle final-winning teammates James Guy, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards.
Richards will be looking to add to the maiden world title he secured over the summer in what will be his first appearance at a European Short Course Championships, while all other medallists from Fukuoka – Anna Hopkin, Freya Anderson, Lucy Hope, Lauren Cox, Joe Litchfield, Ben Proud and Jacob Whittle - are also set to feature.
Athletes were selected based on their performances at international swim meets between 1st May 2023 and 30th August 2023, with a number of those competing eyeing valuable competition time as they build towards the push for Paris in 2024.
Giving his thoughts on the competition, British Swimming’s Head Coach Bill Furniss spoke of the value the experience will bring to the athletes involved once the action in the Romanian capital kicks off.
“The European Short Course Championships are a great opportunity for us to assess where the athletes are at come the end of the first training block of Olympic year”, said Furniss.
“The short-course aspect of the competition will allow us to collect valuable insight into our athletes’ performances and help them focus on developing their starts, turns, and finishing skills. The unique relay opportunities presented to us will also be crucial as we look to build on our ability in this area.
“It will also be a great opportunity to continue building team morale as we build towards the Olympic Games, with the team list combining our more experienced swimmers with some new faces to the senior team.”
The British Swimming team for the 2023 European Short Course Championships in Bucharest, Romania (5th-10th December):
Jonathon Adam, Bath Performance Centre
Freya Anderson, Bath Performance Centre
Cameron Brooker, Bath Performance Centre
Lewis Burras, Loughborough University
Gregory Butler, Loughborough Performance Centre
Imogen Clark, Derby Excel
Alexander Cohoon, Loughborough University
Freya Colbert, Loughborough Performance Centre
Lauren Cox, Loughborough University
Kathleen Dawson, University of Stirling
Tom Dean, Bath Performance Centre
Archie Goodburn, Edinburgh University
Luke Greenbank, Loughborough Performance Centre
James Guy, Millfield
Kara Hanlon, Edinburgh University
Medi Harris, Loughborough Performance Centre
Lucy Hope, University of Stirling
Anna Hopkin, Loughborough Performance Centre
Evan Jones, University of Stirling
Emily Large, Millfield
Joe Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre
Keanna MacInnes, University of Stirling
Jack McMillan, University of Stirling
Edward Mildred, Bath Performance Centre
Oliver Morgan, University of Birmingham
Jacob Peters, Bath Performance Centre
Ben Proud, University of Bath
Matthew Richards, Millfield
Leah Schlosshan, City of Leeds
Duncan Scott, University of Stirling
Katie Shanahan, University of Stirling
Laura Stephens, Loughborough Performance Centre
Jacob Whittle, Bath Performance Centre
Brodie Williams, Bath Performance Centre
Abbie Wood, Loughborough Performance Centre