Countdown to London Olympics begins

30 October 2009

With the London 2012 Olympic countdown approaching 1,000 days (Saturday 31st October), the aquatic disciplines remain on course in their preparations for the first home Olympic Games since 1948.

British Swimming sent a total of 49 athletes to represent swimming, diving and synchronised swimming at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. All three teams returned having made their mark on the international scene and their desire to repeat this feat in front of a home crowd is key to the preparations currently taking place.

British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes has enjoyed seeing the country and the aquatic sports build towards the London Olympics but highlights the importance of not only producing results in the pool but also capitalising on legacy programmes.

"As the London Aquatics Centre begins to dominate the London skyline the reality of how close we now are to the London Olympics becomes clearer," Sparkes said.

"Preparations for all of our sports are right on track to build on the success that the aquatics team enjoyed in Beijing and our legacy programme is also taking shape.

"We are confident that we will not only see British success in the pool but we will also see swimming moving to a new level with more people swimming more often and having more fun in the pool."

At the 2008 Games, the swimming team won six medals which boosted them to sixth in the swimming medal table and helped Team GB reach fourth in the overall medal table.

The British contingent in Beijing proved they were emerging as a force to be reckoned with and at the Rome World Championships this year Britain's swimmers returned with three gold, three silver and two bronze medals with a third place in the overall points table.

As the sport now looks towards the London Olympics, national performance director Michael Scott knows that his team needs to focus on their upcoming key events in order to challenge for success in 2012.

"We are now one year into our four year cycle before the London 2012 Olympics and we have moved on since Beijing," Scott said. "We saw increased numbers of finalists and medallists at the 2009 World Championships and notably an increase in the number of athletes that progressed from finalists to medallists.

"We also won our first relay medal since 2001 and it shows British Swimming is closer than ever before to the mark laid down by the biggest and most successful swimming nations. However there is still a lot of work to be done as we pursue our goals for London 2012."

"We strive to be the best that we can be and in order to do this we make sure that we have the right processes in place. We have to be aware what the rest of the world is doing but we won't worry about it."

Since Beijing, British Swimming has opened five British Gas Intensive Training Centres that give athletes access to not only the necessary 50m pool time but also to world class coaches and sports science and medical staff. The sport has also made key appointments to develop the coaching and support staff network.

"There have been significant changes in our processes and programmes since Beijing," Scott added. "Year one has seen us develop these and year two will see us build upon them.

"The sport has also changed from being driven by technology to being a sport that is technique driven and we have brought Jonty Skinner on board as World Class Technical Advisor to make sure that we are better technically prepared for the years to come.

"Our focus for the next year will be on the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games. We need to focus on our incremental steps in order to get to the end goal – the London Olympics."

The 2008 Olympics saw the largest ever contingent of British divers to qualify for an Olympic Games who went to Beijing to gain invaluable experience for the 2012 Olympics.

Beijing proved to be an Olympics of firsts for the diving squad. There were six athletes to place in the top eight and three individual finalists, which has never been achieved by a British diving squad before. The squad also included Team GB's youngest athlete, Tom Daley, who competed in two events during the competition.

Since the Olympics, the sport has seen the appointment of a new national performance director, former Russian head coach Alexei Evangulov, and throughout 2009 the divers have continued their success from Beijing.

The 2009 European Championships saw the British Gas Diving team win two bronze medals in the women's Platform Synchro and the women's Platform Individual. 3m Synchro pair Nick Robinson-Baker and Ben Swain also won the overall 2009 FINA Diving World Series.

The World Championships in Rome saw the team have nine finalists and seven athletes to rank within the world's top eight. But it was 15-year-old Tom Daley that impressed the most by beating Olympic Champion Matt Mitcham and Olympic silver medallist Zhou Luxin to win the gold medal in the men's Platform Individual.

Evangulov has enjoyed his first year in post working with British Diving and after being impressed with the team's performance in Rome he believes they have what it takes to feature amongst the world's best at the London Olympics.

"I have been very happy with the results the athletes have achieved throughout my first year in charge," Evangulov said. "They've exceeded our expectations throughout this year which is a good starting place to build towards London 2012.

"At the World Championships Tom's gold medal was obviously one of my best moments but also seeing Monique [Gladding] and Megan [Sylvester] achieve sixth place in the women's platform synchro was really pleasing.

"They are such different ages, the youngest athlete and one of the oldest, and we didn't know if they would even make the final. It was great experience not just for them but for us to see that it could work.

"I also enjoyed seeing Ben [Swain] and Nick [Robinson-Baker] finish very close to the Russian team. I know that they can move past them next time. They finished just three points behind the Russian team and that is a good achievement."

Evangulov knows that it isn't just about the athletes' training that is important in a sport like diving it is also their mental attitude that will help them to achieve on the world stage.

"I want to change the mentality within the team," Evangulov said. "I want them to know they can achieve medals and for them to raise their bar. I want them to believe that reaching a final is not good enough and they should be up there on the podium. I want them to be more aggressive and to have the belief that they are strong.

"I am really excited about the London Olympics and knowing it is just around the corner is great. I am also really enjoying working with all of the coaches and I think we can work well towards 2012."

Alongside the success achieved by the swimmers and divers, the 2008 Olympics also saw the re-emergence of British Synchro onto the world stage. The Duet, Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison, moved up six places to 14th in the world rankings and exceeded expectations.

National performance director Biz Price took over the reigns of British Synchro in 2007 and, guided by a vision of the 2012 Olympics as the goal she has worked to transform the sport within the UK.

Canadian-born Price came to Britain to revolutionise a sport that had struggled to make an impact on the international scene for many years and within 18 months she made huge gains with the performance of the Duet in Beijing.

The full team of 12 athletes made their international debut at the end of 2008 and impressed with high scores in their first two competitions and then went into the World Championships knowing the challenge of world leaders Russia and Spain would be tough.

The British Gas Synchro team finished their World Championship campaign on a high after finishing in 10th place in the Free Team Final and reached the top 12 in all but one of their events.

Price has seen Synchronised Swimming within Britain take huge leaps forward and believes that they are in a good position three years away from the London Olympics.

"We have enjoyed a very successful 2009 and the sport is definitely on the rise," Price said. "The challenge that we will face as we head towards 2012 is to continue our rise and the rate at which we are improving.

"We are ahead of the schedule that I set when I joined the sport but also have a good sense of urgency knowing that the Olympics is so close. We have found a strong nucleus of athletes that are currently centralised but we will be looking to build on them in the lead up to 2012.

"We have made a huge jump with the current athletes that we have on the National squad and that was shown in our results at the World Championships.

"This is my first time working with a team before their home Olympics but the Olympics is the Olympics and it is just bigger than any other competition. We understand that the opportunities for our sport with a home Games are huge and we are aiming to capitalise on the exposure that we will receive because of this.

"For next year our main events are the FINA Cup in China and the Commonwealth Games. We reached the final in every event apart from one in Rome at the World Championships and we will aim to final in every event at the FINA Cup. At the Commonwealths I would like to see both England and Scotland achieve medals and that would show me that we are still progressing."

The sport of water polo received a blow at the beginning of the year when it learned of a funding cut but both the women's and men's teams have worked hard to prove they are still competitive on a world stage.

The women's team, who are still centralised at the High Performance Centre in Manchester enjoyed success at this summer's LEN European 'B' Nations Trophy and the whole team have been lifted by the performance.

The men's team experienced their best ever result at a European 'B' Nations Trophy with their fourth place finish in Lugano, Switzerland. With fresh players added to the squad the team looks set to keep improving and with a number of players moving abroad to compete with professional clubs the athletes will be looking to fight for their place on the Olympic squad.

Both teams are now preparing to compete in the qualification tournament for the LEN European 'A' Championships next April which could see them compete against Europe's elite Water Polo teams.

World Class programmes manager Joanna Wray took over the reigns of British Water Polo at the beginning of the year and has been pleased with the progress the teams have made.

"In terms of our performance we are enjoying an excellent period within our sport," Wray said. "We have hit all of our targets and the athletes and coaches want to prove their progression as they continue to try to gain a place on the 2012 Olympic squad.

"We are progressing at a good rate although the sport was hit with the drop in our funding. Everyone remains motivated to come together with 2012 as an objective for us.

"We are working towards a more professional sport and setting clear objectives for everyone to reach to while the athletes know how we are working and it is clear once we have hit our objectives.

"Both of our teams will compete at the qualification event for the European 'A' Championships which will take place in April. If we qualify for the 'A' competition, which will take place in August, it will be a huge leap in our development and it will be a great way to show our continued development towards London 2012."