Great Britain and Italy have been two of the top European nations in recent years, with the Brits topping the medal table at the European Championships in 2021 and the Italians following suit in 2022. They each have a number of established stars – Adam Peaty, Duncan Scott, Thomas Ceccon, and Simona Quadarella, among others – but, halfway through the Olympic cycle, now is the time for swimmers to break out and establish themselves before LA 2028.

Great Britain has now selected its team for the European Championships this summer, based on results from the Aquatics GB Championships, but Italy bases its qualification on two competitions – the recently-completed Italian Championships and the Sette Colli, held in late June.

There are often some fireworks at the Stadio del Nuoto, as we saw last year with Ludovico Viberti’s Italian record in the 50 breast, but there have several breakout swimmers already who could make some noise this summer.

While a couple of these swimmers were already at an international level, they have taken themselves to the next level heading into the European Championships and Commonwealth Games. Some will be swimming their first individual events at a senior international competition, while others will be on medal-contending relay teams or have made the leap from junior to senior level seamlessly.

British Breakouts

Gabe Shepherd

Shepherd had a breakout year in 2024 as a 16-year-old, dominating the British Age Group Championships, but with City of Leeds head coach Richard Debian leaving for Loughborough that summer, he didn’t manage to quite hit the same heights last season.

He has been back on track this year, however, and showed a glimpse of what could be in store at the Swim England Winter Championships in December. He set a British junior record of 21.24 in the 50 free to take the title, also winning the 200 free (1:44.64) and placing 3rd in the 100 free (47.02).

Having dabbled in fly this season, he focused on just the 50/100/200 free at the Aquatics GB Championships. He set huge lifetime bests in all three – 22.12 in the 50, 48.43 in the 100, and 1:46.39 in the 200.

He will be at the European Championships as a relay swimmer and earned an individual swim in the 200 free at the Commonwealth Games. With impeccable skills and a ferocious closing kick – he nearly matched 2023 world champion Matt Richards on the final 50 of the 200 free – he could make some real noise this summer.

Evan Jones

Jones moved to the Manchester Performance Centre as it opened in 2024, and has seen two seasons of progress since. His performances last week in the 200 free and 200 IM saw him qualify for the European Championships team, and set up a solid Scottish 1-2 punch with Duncan Scott for the Commonwealth Games.

He lowered his PB in the 200 IM by over a second, moving up one spot from last year as he took silver in 1:58.09. That makes him the 10th-fastest Brit in history, and he also added lifetime bests in the 100 free (48.93) and 200 free (1:46.50).

In the latter, he hacked a second off his best to finish 5th and move to #4 in Scottish history, and is yet another quality swimmer to add to Britain’s 4×200 free relay. He looks like rounding into a top-level 200 free/200 IM swimmer just in time for LA.

Ed Mildred

Last year was a coming-out for Mildred, but his performance at the Aquatics GB championships this year has truly put him on the map. A semi-finalist at Worlds in both the 100 fly and 200 fly last year, he sliced over a second off his best in the longer event while dropping to 51.02 in the former.

That makes him the #2 British swimmer in history in the 100 fly, only trailing James Guy, and he was nearly eight tenths faster than at this time a year ago. Having dropped nearly half a second from April to July last year, a similar drop would put him right in the mix for medals this summer.

The 200 fly had been his better event as a junior, and he was a whisker away from doing the double as Duncan Scott touched just 0.06 seconds ahead of Mildred’s 1:55.03. There are not many swimmers with the same speed across both distances as Mildred, and it is more likely than not now that he will walk away with some hardware this summer.

Kieran Grant

Last week was Grant’s second competition since the summer of 2024, when he won a pair of British junior titles in the 50 free and 50 fly. Those were his only two entries at this meet as well, and even after some time away, he kicked on massively in both events.

A finals appearance in the 50 free was up first after he dropped from 22.97 to 22.33, eventually placing 5th in 22.31. He was even better in the 50 fly, hacking seven tenths of a second from his lifetime best to take bronze in 23.24 and come within a tenth of the European qualifying time.

Although he will be one of the swimmers not to make the cut, he did hit the qualifying standard for England’s Commonwealth Games team in the 50 fly. With the 50s on the table for LA, there has been a little more focus on the sprints in Britain, and Grant could be one of the big beneficiaries.

Daniel Ransom

Ransom was a European Junior finalist in the 200 IM last year, but was a staggering 3.56 seconds faster than he was in Samorim to place 5th last week. He clocked 1:59.11, only behind Tom Dean among British juniors, and just 0.07 off the time that took golf at European juniors last year.

Ransom is an incredibly versatile swimmer, a back/breast specialist who can still go 2:04 in the long course 200 fly at 18 years old. He was in two ‘A’ finals last week, the 200 back and 200 IM, and showed out in both.

He clocked 1:58.99 in the 200 back to go alongside his IM swim and is one of Britain’s best-ever juniors in that event too now. He is behind only Luke Greenbank and Chris Walker-Hebborn, and faster than current British champion Ollie Morgan, as well as 2022 Commonwealth gold medalist Brodie Williams.

With nearly a year to go until he ages up, he could well end up at #1 in both events. Even if not, those are competitive senior international times. Britain’s class for LA 2028 has come good this year.

Theodora Taylor

Taylor was already one of the top junior swimmers in the world, and arguably the most versatile. She won a pair of medals at the World Junior Championships last summer, silver in the 50 free and bronze in the 100 free, as well as another two on relays.

However, she will not be tearing up the junior ranks again this summer at European juniors, because she will be at the senior championships instead.

Taylor just missed the team in the 4×100 free relay, matching her Welsh record of 54.20 as she finished 5th, but demolished her PB in the 200 free to place 4th in 1:58.31, a new British Age group record. She added an individual swim on the final day, placing 2nd in the 50 free in a new Welsh record of 24.59.

Her slate of events shows an absurdly talented swimmer – 50/100 breast, 50/100/200 free, 200 IM, 50 fly – and she made the ‘A’ final in every single one. Great Britain hasn’t always had its juniors step up into the senior ranks in recent years, but Taylor made that jump with aplomb last week.

Gabrielle Idle-beavers

With the Commonwealth Games coming up, England’s women were sorely missing a breaststroker for their medley relay, with Sienna Robinson their fastest swimmer through the 2024-25 season at 1:08.41.

Enter Idle-Beavers, who hacked a second and a half off her lifetime best in the 100 to go 1:07.69, as well as clock 30.82 for a big PB in the 50. The latter dipped under the qualifying time for England’s Commonwealth team, and the Mount Kelly swimmer looks to be thriving after dropping the 200 from her schedule.

She became the 3rd fastest 17-year-old in British history, and the first British junior to break 1:08 since Kayla Van Der Merwe in 2019. She will be one to watch at European Juniors this summer.

Evelyn Davis

Davis clocked 54.69 in the 100 free at the 2021 Olympic Trials, placing 4th at the age of just 17, but had broken 55 seconds just three times since. All of those came in 2025, however, and less than a season later, she is down into the 53s.

She sliced 0.70 seconds off her best to take silver in 53.99, making her first senior GB international team as part of the 4×100 free relay. She also moved up to #7 in the British all-time rankings.

Davis will swim the 100 free individually at the Commonwealth Games for Scotland again, four years on from bowing out in the semi-finals. Making the final in front of a home crowd in Glasgow didn’t look likely a couple of weeks ago – now she is a swimmer you would pencil in.

Angharad Evans

Evans was a World and Olympic finalist prior to last week’s championships, but is now a top-10 performer all-time in both the 100 breast and 200 breast and a bona-fide title contender.

Big lifetime bests in both events, in addition to the first sub-1:05 swim by anyone in the 100 breast since April 2024, saw her claim the Wilkie award for top swimmer and set a pair of British records. Moving to the University of Stirling in 2022 has proved an inspired decision, and last week was not even the culmination of that.

She spoke about the desire to push on in the summer after the 100 breast final, something she hasn’t quite managed to do the past two years. Hannah Miley was the last Scottish woman to win Commonwealth gold, and as the Games return to the pool where she did so, Evans looks increasingly likely to emulate her.

Italian Impacts

Jacopo Barbotti

Barbotti was the big breakout story at the Italian championships, coming seemingly from nowhere to win both IM titles and take silver in the 200 free. He set big lifetime bests in all three events as well, becoming Italy’s 2nd-fastest 200 IM swimmer in the process.

He dropped nearly two seconds in the 200 IM, clocking a time of 1:57.75 to beat Italian record holder Alberto Razzetti by just 0.01 seconds. A three-second lifetime best saw him win the 400 IM in 4:16.40, and a strong closing 50 of 27.18 was enough to place 2nd in the 200 free in 1:47.27.

He split 1:46.37 on the 4×200 free relay as well, faster than two of Italy’s legs in the world championship final last year. Barbotti will almost certainly be on the team for Europeans, and looks like a shot in the arm for an Italian men’s team which has not had too many new swimmers come through in recent years.

Emma Menicucci

While Sara Curtis has emerged as Italy’s premier sprint freestyle talent, there has not been a clear #2 emerge from the group behind her. With a pair of drops at this year’s Italian Championships, Emma Menicucci looks like becoming that swimmer.

She lowered her best twice in the 100 free, clocking 54.05 in the heats before becoming just the third Italian woman in history to break 54 seconds in the final. She clocked 53.75, finishing just 0.35 seconds behind Curtis, and will have her eye on a spot in the final at the European Championships.

More importantly, what effect does that have on Italy’s 4×100 free relay team? The Netherlands are the favourites, but with a pair of 53-point swimmers Italy may have broken away from the pack behind them.

A PB of 24.93 in the 50 free on the penultimate day made her the 5th-fastest swimmer in Italian history. Watch out for her in that event at the Sette Colli in two months time.

Paolo Borrelli

Borrelli defended her 200 fly title at the Italian Championships from the 2025 edition, but was nearly a second and a half faster in 2:07.47 this year as she set herself up as a likely finalist in the event at the European Championships this summer.

She was out in 59.77 in Riccione and had relatively even splits on her final two 50s of the race. There was a drop off from her second to third 50, however, going from 31.77 to 33.54. If her back end can improve in the summer, as it did last year (1:07.75 to 1:07.03), she could be a medal threat in Paris.

She set a new best of 58.74 in the 100 fly too, but you would have to think there is more potential there after her opening split in the 200. Italy’s female fly ranks have been somewhat muted since Silvia di Pietro moved down to the 50s, but Borrelli could be the answer.

Matter Palmisani

Palmisani did not compete at ACCs nor NCAAs for Cal, but has certainly turned up for the long course season. He was 1.4 seconds faster on the 100 fly than at this point 12 months ago, and a full two seconds on the 200 fly.

He placed 3rd in 1:56.00 in the 200 fly as he swam out of lane eight, behind only Alberto Razzetti and Andrea Camozzi. That was 2.00 seconds faster than at the meet 12 months ago, and 1.62 seconds faster than his lifetime best from the European U23 Championships last summer.

The 100 saw him take 3rd in the ‘B’ final, touching in 52.68 for his third swim under 53 seconds. He has historically been more of a 200 fly swimmer, but is not far away now from what it takes to be an Italian champion – 51.83 last year and 51.92 this year. The European U23 champs could show us if his pre-Olympic year is set to be a big one.

Simone Cerasuolo

We knew Cerasuolo was a good 50 breaststroker, having been a former World Junior Record holder in short course and winning gold at the Singapore World Championships last summer. However, he had been a rung below that level in the 100, owning a best of 59.54 and having qualified for just one major long course final.

He shattered his PB in 58.82 last week, becoming the #3 Italian swimmer in history in this event and moving up to #26 all-time. That was his first swim under 59.5, and is the fastest by a European man so far this year.

He will almost certainly make his first major long course 100 breast final since the European Championships four years ago, and will be a medal favorite in Paris. With Nicole Martinenghi and Lidovico Viberti out injured, Cerasuolo made sure that there were still fireworks in Riccione.

Francesco Ceolin

Ceolin had a best of 52.80 in the 100 fly coming into the Italian championships, a time which placed him 4th at the European Junior Championships last summer. Less than a year later he is the silver medalist from the Italian Championships, having sliced 0.80 seconds off that time.

Ceolin set a new best of 52.62 in prelims, before placing 2nd in the final out of lane 1 in 52.00, going out just a tenth off his 50 PB in 24.12. That tied him for 9th all-time for Italian men at just 17 years old, and qualified him for the European Junior Championships once again. This time, he will be a medal favorite.