As Team GB’s swimmers add the final touches to their Rio 2016 Olympic Games preparations, Head Coach Bill Furniss has described the squad as one of the most exciting ever to represent the nation.
The team of 26 pool-based swimmers landed in Rio de Janeiro on Friday before travelling onward to the Team GB Holding Camp in Belo Horizonte.
Over the next week the athletes will continue to acclimatise to the environment in Brazil at the university pool at UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais) while sharpening their focus towards the start of the Olympic swimming on 6 August.
“We’ve got a 10-day camp and then arrive in the village
three-and-a-half days before the start of the Games,” said Furniss. “We’ll
spend the next week gradually moving our training times towards what the
athletes will experience in Rio with the later competition times and this will
be a key component of our final camp.
“Our travel into Brazil was excellent and has benefitted the athletes already. We did a lot of work with Team GB to achieve a smooth transition and everyone arrived with a real sense of excitement as well as purpose.”
Furniss believes the venue and location for the camp gives Team GB the perfect preparation – just 40 minutes’ flight from Rio. The multi-sport environment coupled with the expertise of Team GB has set the athletes up perfectly.
“The facility at UFMG is simply the best in Brazil,” explained Furniss. “It offers a brand new, indoor 50m pool and 25m pool, and both its staff and Team GB have been tremendous in hosting the team. We have everything we need to prepare for the Games. The pool, gym and support is just fantastic and we must thank Team GB and UK Sport for creating such a world class camp.
- Bill Furniss - GB Head Coach“The location of the camp also provides the team with real flexibility in that some athletes competing towards the end of the swimming schedule will travel to Rio later than the majority.”
Over the next few days most of the athletes will begin their tapers where they start to taper down the training loads towards Rio while working on the last minute adjustments both technically and tactically.
“By the time they arrive in Rio we know they will be race ready,” said Furniss. “We’ve designed the camp schedule around achieving this and it’s put our athletes into a very positive place as they adjust their sights to the starting blocks of their very first event.
“We’re trying to make the whole experience as normal as possible. We’ve been working on that over the past three years to ensure they approach every competition with the same mindset. We want to make sure that over the next few days they achieve that state of readiness to achieve their potential and deliver the right outcome.”