Ben Proud Leads Britain 11 To World S/C Championships
"To be able to bring experienced Olympic and world performers like Ben and Freya together with some younger athletes who are starting out on exciting journeys in the sport is fantastic" - Steven Tigg on his debut as GB head coach
Ben Proud, Olympic silver medallist in the 50m freestyle 0.05sec adrift Aussie gold for Cam McEvoy, will lead a small Great Britain team of 11 at the World Short-Course Championships in Budapest next month.
Flashback to Paris 2024:
Craig Lord
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Aquatics GB issued the following statement today:
An Aquatics GB team combining experienced Olympic medallists and senior international debutants will head to Budapest next month to round out a memorable 2024 at the World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships (10th-15th December).
Eleven swimmers make up the British cohort that will take on the world's best in the Duna Arena’s 25m pool, capping a season that saw some Team GB history in Paris, a unique World Championships in Doha in February and a sold-out Speedo Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre in between.
Ben Proud secured silverware at each of those meets - and the new Olympic Men's 50m Freestyle silver medallist will be aiming for a third successive global short-course medal in the same event as he spearheads the GB cohort, having won the world short-course title back in 2021 and secured silver the following year in Melbourne.
Tokyo Olympic champion Freya Anderson and 2024 World Championship medal-winning duo Abbie Wood and Max Litchfield will look to bank some valuable early-season racing as they push for more medals on the international stage, while Oliver Morgan, Eva Okaro and Angharad Evans - all three having made their Olympic debuts in Paris - will relish more competition exposure after impressive seasons.
Butterfly specialist Jacob Peters is set for his first global short-course event after featuring at the last two long-course World Championships and winning his first individual international medal at last December's European Short Course Championships.
Indeed, three of Britain's Men's 4x50m Medley Relay team that won silver in Bucharest last winter are part of this setup, with Archie Goodburn earning his first senior World Short Course Champs selection - he, Peters and Morgan all came together as part of that medley result nearly 12 months ago.
Completing the Budapest-bound Aquatics GB team are Amelie Blocksidge and Josh Gammon, both involved in a senior international team for the first time after strong showings across the year and with the aim to build their racing experience heading into a big Olympic cycle ahead for both. Blocksidge won three European Junior titles in 2024, while Gammon was part of Britain's inaugural under-23s team at a European event in 2023.
Speaking ahead of his first event as the new Aquatics GB Swimming Head Coach, Steven Tigg said:
"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.
"To be able to bring experienced Olympic and world performers like Ben and Freya together with some younger athletes who are starting out on exciting journeys in the sport is fantastic, and every single member of the team will undoubtedly get a lot out of the trip.
"We must also add how great it is that Archie will be part of the team in Budapest. He has shown remarkable resilience over the past six months, and seeing him on the blocks in a few weeks’ time will be true testament to that."
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
- Ben Proud, Bath University
- Abbie Wood, Aquatics GB Performance Centre Loughborough
