2012 Great Britain Olympian Marco Loughran will continue training for his international swimming career in Denmark, with the VAT Copenhagen swim club.
VAT Copenhagen announced the move in a press release today, noting that the now-26-year-old Loughran is now living in Denmark.
Loughran qualified for the London Olympics in the 200 back, where he placed 18th overall. More recently, he was the 50 back champion at last summer’s British Swimming Championships.
Loughran has a wide-ranging career internationally. A Brit, Loughran competes for Wales when the British nations split for events like the Commonwealth Games – he competed for Wales at Commonwealths in both 2010 and 2014, swimming the 50 and 100 backstroke last summer.
But as a young swimmer, he attended The Southport School in Australia, and went on to do his college swimming at the University of Florida in the United States. Now, despite still representing Great Britain internationally, Loughran has made the move to Denmark, where he will live and train alongside a solid group of Danish swim stars.
The current VAT Copenhagen group, according to the press release, includes breaststroker Morten Klarskov, a rising senior at USC, Oakland alum Anders Jensen and 2012 Danish Olympian Daniel Skaaning. Jensen in particular should serve as a great training partner for Loughran, as both are primarily backstrokers.
Loughran will have his work cut out for him to make the British Olympic team again, with the rising Chris Walker-Hebborn and stalwart Liam Tancock both still swimming well. Loughran will hope his new training home can get him over the hump to Rio next summer.
Arguably an odd move from a swimming perspective, but given he’s unlikely to make Rio, and a call-up for Wales at Commonwealths is another 3 years away – making decisions based on his personal life is a smart move in my opinion.
I am pretty sure he is not going to be training there – but merely represent them at meets, which is a lot easier than representing Guildford, when currently located in Denmark. He is training at the national training center (NTC) along with girlfriend Jeanette Ottesen.
I thought Marco was dating one of the Danish swimmers’ and that is the reason for him training there?
Marco is dating Jeanette Ottesen, that is probably why he is in Denmark.
Yes – That’s also why Jeanette recently swam for Guildford in the British Arena League.