Recently, the British Olympic Association announced the 27 members of the British Olympic Swim Team who would be travelling to the Rio 2016 Olympics in August. Numbers for the team decreased significantly in 2016, compared to the past two Olympic teams for Great Britain. This year’s team of 27 swimmers pales in comparison to the 44 qualifiers in 2012 for the London Olympics and the 36 qualifiers who competed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The new qualifying standards for the Olympics seemed to hit the English swimmers hardest. Despite the decrease in British qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Olympics, numbers of Scottish and Welsh qualifiers remained relatively steady compared to qualifiers in 2012 and 2008. The number of English qualifiers, on the other hand, decreased by over 50% compared to 2012. In previous Olympics, English swimmers usually made up about three-quarters of the qualifiers, but this year Scottish and Welsh swimmers proportionally make up almost half of the team. These numbers are unprecedented in British swimming.
British Olympic Teams by the Numbers
| 2016 | Number of Olympic Team Members | Percent of team |
| England | 16 | 59% |
| Scotland | 7 | 26% |
| Wales | 4 | 15% |
| 2012 | Number of Olympic Team Members | Percent of team |
| England | 34 | 77% |
| Scotland | 6 | 14% |
| Wales | 4 | 9% |
| 2008 | Number of Olympic Team Members | Percent of team |
| England | 26 | 72% |
| Scotland | 8 | 22% |
| Wales | 2 | 6% |
At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, British swimmers won a total of 45 medals, with 62% of those medals earned by English swimmers, 22% earned by Scottish swimmers, and the remaining 16% earned by Welsh swimmers. The numbers at the Commonwealth Games are fairly consistent with 2016 Olympic team numbers, seemingly proving that the decrease in English qualifiers for the 2016 Rio Olympic team is partially due to the stricter time standards as well as an increased number of top-level performances by Scottish and Welsh swimmers.
The numbers of Scottish and Welsh swimmers remains relatively steady compared to previous Olympics, showing the growing strength of these programs despite the new qualifying standards clearly making an impact. The 2016 British Olympic team will be, proportionally, the most diverse ever.
But, with the numbers down this year for the UK, more pressure will be on the top British athletes to show that, despite a smaller team, British swimming is as strong as ever. Returning Olympians, such as Hannah Miley and Andrew Willis, both finalists in 2012, will be in spotlight, as will newcomers who have excelled in recent years, such as world record holder Adam Peaty. James Guy is one of the favorites to medal in the 400 freestyle, currently ranked second in the world in the event. Max Litchfield and Ben Proud are both ranked in the top 5 in the world in the 400 IM and 50 freestyle, respectively, making them potential contenders for medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics as well. On the women’s side, Britain has one of their strongest Olympic teams yet with six women currently ranked in the top 5 world in their respective events, including Hannah Miley ranked 2nd in the 400 IM, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor ranked 3rd in the 200 IM, and Francesca Halsall ranked 3rd in ther 50 freestyle.
Great article….now can it tell us why this is happening? That would have been great.
if the Scots had left in 2014 there would be more English in the Lesser Great Britain team.
Unless something has changed, the official British Swimming statement lists a team of 26, of which 8 are Scottish. Only 1 of these is a wild card (Dan Wallace) who was selected as a ‘relay alternate’ alongside 2 other swimmers.
Yes, the official British statement lists 26 swimmers, but I have also included English swimmer Jack Burnell in the count, open water swimmer who qualified in the 10k.
Fair enough. Perhaps worth noting that the open water selection isn’t finished yet with a female spot still up for grabs. Definitely 8 Scots on the team though
Not much to say about this… but I agree with Manxman. Just wanted to say that I hope the whole team does well, but I’d love to see, in particular, Hannah Miley and Fran Halsall come out with a medal. They have both had long, thankless journeys, and to see Halsall do so well in 2014 and Miley in 14-15 in particular made me very happy for them. Of course I wish everyone on the team the absolute best and am rooting for a successful medal haul for Team GB.
Three of the Scottish swimmers were wild cards who did not achieve the qualification time. If they had not been picked (ahead of English swimmers who won events and were closer to the qualification times) the ratios would have been similar to previous years. In addition it appears that Scotland has done a far better job of building a swimming infrastructure aimed at turning out world class swimmers so over time I would expect this trend to continue.