The curtain is set to come down on a memorable 2024 of swimming at the iconic Duna Arena pool in the coming days, as an Aquatics GB team of experience and youth gets ready to dive into six days of World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships action in Budapest (10th-15th December).
At the end of a year that brought five Olympic medals in the pool for GB - including a historic relay title defence - silverware in both pool and marathon swimming at February's unique World Championships, multiple junior successes for our up-and-coming athletes, and some unforgettable action at a sold-out Speedo Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, it will be over to rising talent Amelie Blocksidge to get Britain's World Short Course campaign underway on Tuesday (10th December) when she dives in for the heats of the Women's 400m Freestyle, with action running across heats and finals sessions until Sunday 15th December.
Six GB swimmers are in opening-day action, with Amelie being joined in competition by Eva Okaro (Women's 50m Butterfly), Abbie Wood (Women's 200m Individual Medley), Oliver Morgan (Men's 100m Backstroke), Jacob Peters (Men's 50m Butterfly) and Max Litchfield (Men's 200m Individual Medley).
With this meet being used as a valuable competition opportunity against a world-class field and so early in the Olympic cycle into 2028, there are some busy individual event programmes on show, with Wood (200m Freestyle, 200m IM and 400m IM), Morgan (50m, 100m and 200m Backstroke) and Angharad Evans (50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke) among those slated to contest three events, while Litchfield is set to race in both individual medley events, the 200m Freestyle and the 400m Freestyle.
Butterfly specialist Peters, meanwhile, will line up in the 50m and 100m iterations of his favoured stroke - and the Aquatics GB Performance Centre Bath man is relishing the chance to represent GB again on the international stage.
"I'm really looking forward to getting out to Budapest and giving it my best. I can't wait to be around the other members of the team again - last season was a bit of a disappointment for me, so to be back on the team and surrounding myself with all the talent and the amazing athletes that Aquatics GB produce, it's great," said the European medallist.
"I want to go there, enjoy myself, try to get the best out of what I'm capable of at the moment, and then hopefully there are a couple of finals and we can go from there. It'll be really good to get myself round the team again, get morale high and then hopefully kick on for the rest of the season."
Olympic silver medallist and 2021 World Short Course 50m Freestyle champion Ben Proud has withdrawn from the team and will not be competing in Budapest as he continues to build back into post-Olympic training.
July's World Aquatics Championships in Singapore is the major focus for the swimming team as the benchmark meet for 2025, and new Head Coach Steven Tigg explained how the high-level competition, racing exposure and process of getting through the rounds at World Short Course can help the athletes involved at this stage of the season.
"We are really looking forward to bringing this team together and getting some valuable early-season racing under the belt as we begin a fresh Olympic cycle towards LA - with the first major focus being about building towards next summer's World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The World Short Course Championships are always an enjoyable and insightful competition opportunity, which provide a chance to fine-tune technical skills and routines in the high-performance arena," he said.
- Every heats and finals session from Budapest will be available to watch live on the Eurovision Sport platform. For more information and to register to watch, visit Eurovision now.
- Full results and start lists will be available on the World Aquatics website.
Aquatics GB Swimming team for World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships, Budapest, Hungary (10th-15th December):
Freya Anderson, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Bath
Amelie Blocksidge, City of Salford
Angharad Evans, University of Stirling
Josh Gammon, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Bath
Archie Goodburn, University of Edinburgh
Max Litchfield, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Loughborough
Oliver Morgan, University of Birmingham
Eva Okaro, Repton
Jacob Peters, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Bath
Abbie Wood, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Loughborough