Senior squad selected as artistic swimmers look to ‘build on the momentum’ in 2025

Great Britain’s artistic swimming senior squad has been selected for 2025 as they look to ‘build on the momentum’ from a historic year in 2024.

A total of 19 athletes have been chosen for the senior programme, ahead of a packed calendar of major events which includes the European and World Championships later this year.

Paris 2024 Olympic silver medallists Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe headline the group, alongside European champion Ranjuo Tomblin and six members of the GB team that took the nation’s first European medal in a team event since 1985 back in June.

That team included both Eve Young and Florence Blinkhorn, who earnt valuable World Cup experience as part of their first senior campaign last year. Young also came away with a double of solo titles at the GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Championships in April as she continues her development.

Holly Hughes, Sophie Rowney, Robyn Swatman and Amelie Williams also return to the squad – based at the High Performance Centre in Bristol – as they look to help the team towards more success in 2025 and beyond.

They’ll be joined by Alyssa Anderson, Magdalena Townsend, Cara Zeidler, Loya Cenkci and Pia Lanham who are set to make the step up to senior international level after impressing at the 2024 European Junior Championships.

City of Bristol’s trio of Marie-Ange Seigfried, Robyn Ashworth and Danae Boitsidis complete the 19-strong group along with City of Leeds’ Scarlet Garland, Reading Royals’ Jessica Hinxman.

 

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‘An exciting time’

The full team are already back in training and after helping guide Shortman and Thorpe to the nation’s first Olympic medal in the sport, Swim England artistic swimming manager, Karen Thorpe, is hoping they and the rest of the team can kick on following that success.

She said: “We’re really excited to be moving forwards after such a successful season last year.

“As well as that incredible moment in Paris we had amazing results throughout the squad, particularly at the senior Europeans, winning medals in solo, duet and team events.

“This year we really want to kick on from that and build on that momentum as we work towards our long term aims of LA 2028.

“We’re planning to go to some of the World Cups events, starting with a return to Paris at the end of February, and we want to play a big part in both the European and World Championships later this year too.

“It’s an exciting time, we’ve got a new duet and a new mixed duet as part of the squad and the team have already been working hard since they returned to training.

“We recently welcomed them back for the new year with a team building weekend at the Mendip Activity Centre near our training base in Bristol. It was great to have everyone together, take part in the activities and put in place our goals and plans for the season.

“It’s a really strong group and we’re taking on board some of the learnings from last year to help us become even more competitive in the future.”