Britain’s swimmers backed to go better at Paris Olympics after record medal haul

Swimming
Jeremy Selwyn

Britain’s swimmers have been tipped to improve their medal haul at the Paris Olympics after their most successful Games in the pool.

The team ended third in the swimming medal table behind the United States and Australia with four gold medals, three silver and a bronze.

But British Swimming performance director Chris Spice insisted the team had yet to reach its peak.

He said: “Our goal will be to be better in Paris. We are not going to stand still. The minute you stand still you get overtaken. Our plan is to keep pushing in every single aspect of performance, science and medicine and the innovation projects that we have got going.

“There is a whole range of stuff we haven’t hit yet. We have got a bit up our sleeve and a great cohort of young athletes.

“One of the great things is that 75% of the team is in a first Olympics. If you look at our men’s 4x1 for example – 18, 16, 21 and 23 – that is a team which will be a significant play in Paris.”

Adam Peaty got the medal rush off to a perfect start with gold in the 100metre breaststroke and Tokyo Aquatics Centre proved something of a golden pond for Team GB as Tom Dean won 200m freestyle gold and the team won two Olympic relay titles.

Spice argued the year delay for the Tokyo Olympics had aided a young British swimming but that there was still a 10 to 15 percent improvement to come between Tokyo and the next Games in Paris.

“There is still investment going into different areas that we haven’t got outputs yet,” he said. “That coupled with the talent we have in this group and the fact that they are young and moving forward is significant. We are still going to push.”

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