Eight to make senior international debuts for Britain at European Championships
Eight swimmers are set to make their senior international debuts for Great Britain at next month’s European Aquatics Championships in Italy.
Jonathon Adam, Greg Butler, Lauren Cox, Kara Hanlon, Isabella Hindley, Jonathon Marshall, Sebastian Somerset and Mason Wilby will be joined in Rome by a host of Olympic, World and European champions.
It is part of a process to see how ‘our younger athletes perform in the senior environment’ as British Swimming looks ‘to identify swimmers for Paris 2024 and beyond’.
The European Championships, which take place from Thursday 11 August to Wednesday 17 August, is the third and final major event of the year following the World Championships and the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
Great Britain will be taking a 31-strong squad to the iconic Stadio Olimpico del Nuoto.
Competed brilliantly
It includes triple Olympic and 16-time European champion Adam Peaty – who was forced to miss the Worlds due to injury – newly-crowned Men’s 50m Freestyle world champion Ben Proud and Tokyo 2020 gold medal winners Anna Hopkin and Tom Dean.
Fifteen of the team that were in action at the World Championships will be competing in Italy, including Luke Greenbank, who won individual and relay medals in Budapest, and James Guy, the winner of seven European golds at his previous three finals.
Chris Spice, British Swimming performance director, said: “This event brings to a close an unprecedented few months of competition for our athletes.
“As ever, we have been impressed by the way in which they have approached two or three such important competitions in short succession, both in their preparation and their racing.
“A smaller British team competed brilliantly at the World Championships last month, and we are excited to see how the swimmers fare as they join up in their Home Nation teams for the Commonwealths.
Fantastic opportunity
“Following that, it is fantastic that we can select a team of such varied experience and talent for the Europeans, with some of our swimmers heading to their fourth Europeans, and others competing in a senior GB cap for the very first time.
“This meet will provide chances for some high-quality competition, but most importantly, we are also keen to see how our younger athletes perform in the senior environment as we look to identify swimmers for Paris 2024 and beyond.
“We will obviously be missing a few established stars, so this will also be a fantastic opportunity for us to further test the depth of our relay squads with future competitions in mind.
“Those swimmers who have elected not to attend the European Championships have done so with our full support, as they focus on their own, individual situations ahead of a hugely important 2023 season.”
There is scope for a team of up to 35 athletes, with potential for further selections to be made following the conclusion of the swimming programme at the Commonwealth Games.