A British Swimming Christmas 2022

23 Dec 2022

We all know that a typical Christmas might include some festive activities, watching films with the family or even kicking back and enjoying a mulled wine in front of the fire. But what might a British Swimming Christmas Day look like?

We asked swimmer Freya Anderson and diver Ben Cutmore about how Christmas day might look if they were to navigate through the days festivities with their teammates, and there were certainly some interesting takes…

Freya Anderson

Who will most excited and up opening presents at 5am?
Jono (Jonathon Adam), he’d either be up first or not up at all until the afternoon.

Who would cook the best Christmas dinner?
Not to toot my own horn but probably me or Holly Hibbott. Holly and I are good chefs so ours is the place to be!

Who round the table would be telling the best/worst Christmas jokes?
Kieran Bird, he comes out with some interesting one-liners all the time.

Who's still going to be getting in a training session on Christmas Day?
Will have to be Leah Crisp or Luke Turley, they're both distance swimmers so they do loads of meters.

Freya Anderson Freya Colbert Tom Dean celebrate Mixed 4x200m Free Relay GOLD Rome 2022.JPG
Freya Anderson imagines a Christmas with her teammates

Who would get the most competitive over a Christmas board game?
Probably Cam Brooker, we play cards a lot as a group and it always gets heated.

Who would be wearing the best/worst Christmas jumper all day long?
Brodie Williams, he started wearing Christmas jumpers in like November, I respect the dedication.


Ben Cutmore

Who will most excited and up opening presents at 5am?

I think either Desharne Bent-Ashmeil, James Heatly or Scarlett Mew-Jensen. Desharne because she’s always excitable, James because he’s in Australia and it’s mid-summer there so why wouldn’t you? Or Scarlett because it’s her puppy’s first Christmas and she’ll be more excited about that than any of her own things.

Who would cook the best Christmas dinner?
Jack Laugher and Lois Toulson, they’d make a good Christmas dinner because they’re basically the parents of the group and that how parents work, right?

Who round the table would be telling the best/worst Christmas jokes?
Jokes would be flying around the table from everyone, but the people getting the most laughs would be Kyle Kothari, Daniel Goodfellow, and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix. Kyle and Dan for their jokes, Andrea because she’s Andrea…

Who's still going to be getting in a training session on Christmas Day?
From what I know so far, nobody, and I hope it stays that way for us all as well.

Noah Williams and Ben Cutmore Rome 2022 [Getty]
Ben Cutmore (right) talks through his fellow divers at Christmas

Who would get the most competitive over a Christmas board game?
All of us are quite competitive people but the ones making it most vocal would definitely be myself, Matty Lee or Dan Goodfellow.

Who would be wearing the best/worst Christmas jumper all day long?
The best Christmas jumper would probably be worn by Robyn Birch, and the most diabolical embarrassment of a Christmas jumper you’ll ever see would either be worn by me or Alex Rochas.