A host of Britain's elite swimmers are preparing to descend on the iconic London Aquatics Centre for this week's British Swimming Selection Trials (14th - 18th April).
Several changes have been made to British Swimming's flagship annual meet on its first return to the scene of the London 2012 Olympic Games in six years, with ongoing COVID restrictions and a lack of access to pools for so many over recent months seeing the event scaled back.
The ultimate focus is now on selections for senior international competitions later in the year, the upcoming European Championships in Budapest and the rescheduled Olympic Games in Tokyo the inevitable headliner in that list.
Despite the edited setup and with no spectators able to be in the stands, anticipation remains high as athletes prepare to show how every aspect of their hard work over a unique year can pay off at the vital time, with talent set to be on show across the pool over all five days of competition.
Reigning Olympic champion Adam Peaty will be among the standout stars on show on the opening day in the Men's 100m Breaststroke, while a deep field in the Men's 200m Individual Medley could make that one of the finals of the week.
Day two features the Women's 100m Backstroke, with world and European medallist Georgia Davies set to face in-form University of Stirling duo Kathleen Dawson and Cassie Wild, with the Men's and Women's 100m Freestyle showdowns coming on day three and four respectively, before the Men's 200m Freestyle - one of the most stacked events across the meet - brings the curtain down on Sunday.
Every single heat and final race will be livestreamed across the British Swimming YouTube and Facebook channels, with double Rio 2016 medallist Jazz Carlin doing poolside interviews with the winners. The British Swimming social media channels will also provide regular updates and insights from the athletes, with daily reports published across our website.
Ahead of the meet, British Swimming Performance Director Chris Spice said: "It feels strange going into this meet in slightly unique circumstances and without us being able to have a full complement of athletes, coaches and spectators in attendance. We feel for those not able to compete this time around due to Covid restrictions but we remain excited to see what those competing can serve up in London over the coming week.
"These selection trials are a key step in our ongoing journey to Tokyo, and we hope to see some fast swimming that will make the selectors task as difficult as possible when we sit down to add names to the Olympic team next Monday. Of course, some swimmers have not been able to prepare for this meet as they would like, which is why we have a three-stage selection process this year. Phase one has already occurred with our four pre-selectedathletes, this will be phase two of our Olympic selections, and phase three coming after we see performances at the Europeans, the two designated Mare Nostrums, and the Glasgow International meet in June.
"This meet will take place in a COVID-secure bubble, on the back of our recent successful meets up in Manchester in February and March. Both of these played an important part in our preparations and help us to feel confident in the overall setup. We would like to thank our partners at the London Aquatics Centre, LLDC and the London region Scientific Advisory Group who have all worked tirelessly with us over the past few weeks to help deliver the meet successfully.
"We hope that swimmers and aquatics fans of all ages who are now able to return to the pool will enjoy the swims on show in the coming days."
One of those athletes who will be looking to make their mark is freestyle sprinter Freya Anderson, who trains under David McNulty at the Bath National Centre.
Anderson earned her maiden World Championship medal in Gwangju in 2019 - and she will not be letting herself get carried away by the occasion of her first Olympic trial event this week.
"I'm really looking forward to it, it's come around really quickly! I'm really excited to see what I can do and what the rest of my team from Bath can do at trials too," she said.
"There's always a bit of added pressure when it's Olympic trials, but you can't really think of it as that. I'm just going to go there and race. Obviously I really enjoy racing and haven't had many opportunities to do it in this past year.
"It's just another race really. There is a bit of added pressure, but it'll just be good to go down there and race."
Breaststroker James Wilby – a double medallist at those 2019 World Championships – is one of the British swimmers pre-selected to Team GB ahead of Tokyo this summer.
But the David Hemmings-coached athlete is as motivated as anyone heading to the London Aquatics Centre.
“It will be really exciting to actually get all together, everyone in a tapered state and really going for it. It will be good to see who else could be going to the Olympics,” he said.
“Once we’ve come out of the back end of the week, it’ll be a really good position for all of us who are on the team to know where we are at and where we are going forward.
“I’d be lying if I said being pre-selected didn’t slightly alter my mindset, it’s incredibly nice. It gives me that slight safety net, but I’ve still got to qualify for the individual events. The pre-selection doesn’t change my overall outlook to the trials, I still want to go there with the intent of swimming really fast times and setting myself up nicely. It’s something I’ve done over the past couple of years, using the meet in April to set the stage for myself for the summer.”FOLLOW IT ALL