Toby Robinson looking to make it count at Paris 2024 Olympics

With the Paris 2024 Olympic Games underway, we’re taking a closer look at the some of the English athletes that will be competing in the French capital.

Toby Robinson is hoping to make a mark on the Olympic stage when he takes to the Seine River for the Men’s 10km Marathon Swimming race at Paris 2024.

After narrowly missing out on qualifying for both the Rio and Tokyo Games, Robinson booked a spot in France after a strong swim at the World Championships in Doha and says he’s not going there just to make up the numbers.

He said:  “I want to win gold, simple as that. I’m not going there just to compete, I’m going there to win.

“I threw everything into that race at world’s to try and get qualification. I managed to get 15th which did the job for me. I then went up to altitude for three weeks and came down and swam in the pool at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

“I hit a massive PB there, which gives me so much confidence for the race in Paris. And then across five weeks, we did four 10km’s around Europe which has really honed those race skills and got me ready for the race in Paris.”

‘I’m ready for anything’

Robinson is set to take the open water on Friday 9 August at 6:30am for the race where he’ll be joined by his Loughborough University and Team GB teammate Hector Pardoe.

The pair are able to swim at the Olympics together for the first time due to a change from one per nation to two per nation in the marathon swimming events for Paris 2024.

That rule stopped Robinson’s qualification for Tokyo despite him winning bronze in the qualification race as Pardoe took the gold.

The West Midlands native was then on home turf as he represented Team England in the pool at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games where he just missed out on a medal in fourth place.

However those near misses only made him more determined to get to Paris and put on a strong display.

“Everyone else in the top 15 of that race qualified for the Olympics apart from me so I felt quite hard done by but that was the rules at the time. I’m just glad that they’ve changed it for this time so we could both qualify.

“Then I just missed out on the medals at the Commonwealth Games and I often think back to that point my career where things could have been slightly different.

“Before qualifying for this Olympics, I was thinking about getting a medal at the Commonwealth Games and then qualifying for the last Olympics. So those are the two things that that that stick out of that I’ve missed out on.

“But missing out last time, even though I was good enough to compete at the Olympics, made me so much more determined to qualify this time.

“And after qualifying I was overwhelmed but there was a sense of relief. Finally, after all this work, I achieved my goal so it was kind of more relief than happiness.

“It is my debut Olympics but because of everything I’ve been through, I’m not going in there feeling inexperienced. I’m going in there feeling like I’m ready for the challenge and I know what’s to come. I’m ready for anything.”

“I’m fully focused on doing as well as I can at this Games and hopefully, I can improve that fourth up to a first, second or third.”

‘I love being in open water’

Growing up in Wolverhampton, Robinson first took up triathlon as well as swimming, football, cycling and even fencing.

It was swimming that his talent always drew him towards though, particularly his love for being in the open water.

“I grew up in Wolverhampton, and my first sport was actually triathlon. I was a part of Black Country Triathletes, which was a local triathlon team at the time.

“But swimming was always my best discipline out of the three. I’d always be well ahead in the swim, and then fall back in the race on the bike and the run.

“I was a member of Wolverhampton Swimming Club who taught me basically how to swim, and then after that, Royal Wolverhampton Swimming Club. And I owe everything to those clubs for where I am today.

“I love being in the water, and that’s why I love being in the open water as well even more than the pool because you get to swim in these beautiful locations.

“And open water swimming is such a spectacular and dramatic sport. I absolutely love it.

“You build great friendships, and you build great life skills too. Swimming itself is a life skill, and for me it was something that kept you busy as well as school too.

“It’s great to get out and do sport so I want to champion these clubs as much as possible because it’s possible for kids like me to go all the way and make the Olympics.”

You can find all the details on how to watch every event at the Olympic Games here.