European Short Course 'a great opportunity' for 35-strong team

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 (5^th-10^th 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