James Guy was crowned Aquatics GB Champion Athlete for 2025 as a memorable season of aquatics achievements was celebrated at The Aquatics GB Awards in Newport on Saturday night.
Guy has been a consistent figure within the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle team for over a decade – with this summer’s triumph in Singapore coming ten years on from his first individual and relay world titles at Kazan 2015 – and in being in receipt of the Maurice Watkins Champion Athlete Award is a testament not only to his part in that continued legacy, but also to a stunning year in which the 29-year-old has reliably stepped up to produce world class swims in the moments it’s mattered most.
While unable to be present at the celebration event in Newport, James was handed the trophy by his wife, Courtney, in a surprise reveal after a training session earlier in the week at the Manchester Aquatics Centre - and as Champion Athlete for 2025 he joins Poppy Maskill, Maisie Summers-Newton, Tom Dean, Alice Tai, Adam Peaty, Jack Laugher and Tom Daley as a winner of that coveted prize.
“I just want to say a thank you again for the Maurice Watkins Award, it’s a real honour to win this year among the amazing athletes out there that will be celebrated this evening,” said Guy over videolink.
“This is my first time winning an Aquatics GB award - it’s a lovely acknowledgment and a credit to all the hard work of the team around me.”
Jack McMillan, Tom Dean and Evan Jones earlier took to the stage to accept the Swimming Athlete of the year on behalf of the full Singapore 2025 Men’s 4x200m Freestyle ensemble – which included Guy, Duncan Scott and Matt Richards.
“I think it’s really important we’ve got this heritage for the four by two. The experience is massive – I remember my first team year ago in Glasgow looking up to the likes of Calum Jarvis, Duncan [Scott] and Jimmy [Guy],” said Dean
“I’ve no doubt Evan along with plenty of other freestyler in the country are going to get loads of that experience in the future and hopefully many more medals because our relay is a force to be reckoned with at the moment and it’s great to be a part of it.”
Poppy Maskill equally enjoyed a memorable time in Singapore, bringing home five gold medals from a World Para Swimming Championships where she contributed to a new Mixed S14 4x100m Medley world record and broke the Women’s S14 100m Butterfly mark. These accomplishments saw her named the Para-Swimming Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row.
“I had a lot of great competition for the award this year with Will [Ellard] and Faye [Rogers] so I’m quite shocked I won it,” said Maskill.
“Winning the fly was probably my highlight of the year, but also being on the relays this summer and having the likes of Georgia [Sheffield] and Harry [Stewart] new into that, both doing amazing and all of us in those teams getting gold together was a special moment.”
There was a shared win in the Diving Athlete of the Year category, as Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen were both crowned after a summer that saw them combine for a third consecutive world championships medal in the Women’s 3m Synchro in backing up their Paris 2024 Olympic success.
“It’s been an amazing season together and it’s really great that we finished on a high with that silver medal at the world championships – we’re both so proud of that,” said Harper.
“Scarlett and I are both so competitive, which is definitely something I think drives us both forwards into each event to target the medals. To win this award together is great and hopefully we can continue onto more success in the future.”
Capping his outstanding season, Ranjuo Tomblin became the first-ever male athlete to win the Aquatics GB Artistic Swimming Athlete of the Year award – recognising his achievements alongside both his fellow nominees, Holly Hughes and Isabelle Thorpe, in addition to solo triumphs at the European Championships and World Cup Tour.
“This award is very special to me. I’ve had an extra-long season this year with seven competitions across multiple continents,” said Tomblin.
“My highlight of this season would definitely be our bronze medal in Singapore - the first for Great Britian at those championships and our first ever in Mixed Duet on the global stage which was very special.”
Kathy Rogers was awarded back-to-back Water Polo Athlete of the Year titles, with the Aquatics GB's women's water polo team captain a key cog in the engine of the side’s tournament run in Singapore – popping up with crucial goals in both the group D and final classification matches against France.
In the Coach of the Year categories, Patrick Miley was rewarded for supporting Faye Rogers through a season in which she set multiple world, European and British records on top of her multi-medal world championships haul, by being named Para-swimming Coach of the Year, while Tom Owens received the diving prize after guiding seven of his Aquatics GB Performance Centre Sheffield athlete-stable to Singapore – with Yasin Harper, Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding all stepping onto the podium.
Ben Higson and Ryan Livingstone were joint winners of the Swimming Coach of the Year award after taking multiple athletes to maiden worlds, in addition to coaching five of the six swimmers in the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle lineup between them last season.
The stunning artistic swimming achievements of Tomblin and the Mixed Duet saw Paola Basso recognised as Artistic Swimming Coach of the Year – adding to her previous wins from 2019 and 2022, with Nick Hume's guidance of the Women's Under-18 water polo team in a successful European campaign securing him the water polo award.
Celebrating the stars of the future, the Emerging Athlete of the Year awards opened the night. Noah Penman - a European silver medallist in 2025 - joined an illustrious list of winners in the Diving Emerging Athlete Award, with Bruce taking home the Para-swimming Emerging Athlete prize after a season that saw him lower his Men’s SB6 100m Breaststroke British record and win a first senior global medal as part of the Mixed 34pts 4x100m Medley relay team.
Filip Nowacki, meanwhile, won the Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year award following his golden summer of world and European Junior Championship action.
There was also the return of the Contribution to Social Impact Award, with Freya Anderson and Hector Pardoe acknowledged in recognition for the positive difference they’re respectively making away from the elite performance arena; Hector for continued efforts in campaigning for clean water with his ‘Three Lakes Challenge’ and participation in swimming the entire length of the River Thames, and Freya for the empowering work she is delivering to young women through her FAST and Female project.
“I’m so happy for the recognition of our aim to keep young women in girls in sport for longer by empowering them and seeing their confidence grow on our FAST and Female swim clinics. I’m really grateful to receive this award,” said Anderson.
Aquatics GB Awards 2025 winners
- James Guy - Maurice Watkins Champion Athlete
- Poppy Maskill - Para-Swimming Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Everyone Active
- Men’s 4x200m Freestyle relay team (Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan, Duncan Scott, Tom Dean and Evan Jones) - Swimming Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Speedo
- Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen - Diving Athlete of the Year, sponsored by CSE
- Ranjuo Tomblin - Artistic Swimming Athlete of the Year
- Kathy Rogers - Water Polo Athlete of the Year
- Patrick Miley - Para-Swimming Coach of the Year
- Ben Higson and Ryan Livingstone - Swimming Coach of the Year, sponsored by Sport Passport
- Tom Owens - Diving Coach of the Year
- Paola Basso - Artistic Swimming Coach of the Year
- Nick Hume - Water Polo Coach of the Year
- Bruce Dee - Para-Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Gray Dawes
- Filip Nowacki - Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Sport Passport
- Noah Penman - Diving Emerging Athlete of the Year
- Freya Anderson and Hector Pardoe - Contribution to Social Impact
Read more about each of the winners and their fellow nominees on the Aquatics GB Awards 2025 pages.