When all was said and done at the just-concluded European Championships in Budapest, Hungary, the nation of Great Britain wound up on top of the medal table for the first time since the 2014 edition of these Championships in Berlin.
The squad collectively came home with 11 swimming titles which contributed to the nation’s overall haul of 26 medals. Of those, 11 were gold, 9 were silver and 6 were bronze.
Additionally, Great Britain set a new record mark of earning 7 relay titles out of 9 possible, with championships records established in 4, giving a glimpse into what’s possible for this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
British Swimming Head Coach Bill Furniss said of his team’s performances, “The Europeans will give our athletes a lot of confidence and belief in their preparation. It was really pleasing to see the depth as well, particularly how much the women have improved.
“The performances in the relays show how the depth of the team has moved on, but also it shows the collective responsibility of the team. They want to race for each other. It’s a very close-knit team, and I thought the relays were a tremendous example of the culture and the way they are focused and want to swim well as a collective.
“Budapest was four weeks after our trials, so the challenge for the team was to maintain a high level of performance. Obviously swimmers were at different phases of preparation: some had decided to bounce on, some were back in full training, some were in between those places – but they weren’t fully prepared for that competition, so we were delighted with how they rose to the challenge and were able to produce such a high calibre of swims.
“We have definitely moved forward from last year – there’s a big note of caution that this is a platform for us to move forward, but we’re all very clear that it’s no more than that.
“The real challenge now is to move these performances on again at the Tokyo Olympics. It’s very much a reset, a refocus now, we use this platform to build from.
“In itself, it was really successful, our best European Championships ever – but that’s gone now, that’s history, and it’s great to have the history but the real challenge now is in eight weeks’ time.
“In our Tokyo preparation, we now bounce on again to the British Swimming Glasgow Meet in a week-and-a-half, where we are doing morning finals. The whole race strategy is based on giving them these high-standard challenges – so they’ve had a really high standard international meet following trials, and now we bounce on to preparing to race fast in the evening and fast again in the morning.”
As we previously reported, the British Swimming Glasgow Meet replaces the annual Glasgow International Swimming Meet, with this year’s edition acting as a last-chance Olympic qualification. Spanning Thursday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 6th the meet will mimic the timing of this summer’s Olympic Games, with prelims taking place in the evening followed by finals the next morning.
Below is a full list of the British swimming medalists at the European Championships, including those won by relay heat swimmers.
Freya Anderson – 5 gold, 1 bronze
Anna Hopkin – 4 gold, 1 bronze
Adam Peaty – 4 gold
Lucy Hope – 4 gold
James Guy – 3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze
Tom Dean – 3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze
Kathleen Dawson – 3 gold, 1 silver
Duncan Scott – 2 gold, 3 silver
Abbie Wood – 2 gold, 1 silver
Joe Litchfield – 3 gold, 1 silver
Molly Renshaw – 2 gold
Harriet Jones – 2 gold
Emma Russell – 2 gold
Evelyn Davis – 2 gold
Matthew Richards – 1 gold, 2 silver
Jacob Whittle – 1 gold, 1 silver
Cassie Wild – 1 gold, 1 silver
Calum Jarvis – 1 gold, 1 silver
Luke Greenbank – 1 gold, 1 silver
James Wilby – 1 gold, 1 bronze
Max Litchfield – 1 silver, 1 bronze
Tamryn Van Selm – 1 gold
Holly Hibbott – 1 gold
Sarah Vasey – 1 gold
Ben Proud – 1 silver
