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Singer Jorja Smith hails work of Olympic hopeful Alice Dearing

Singer Jorja Smith has hailed the work of open water swimmer Alice Dearing after featuring the Olympic hopeful in a video for her latest single.

Dearing, who has represented Great Britain at three World Championships, has a cameo appearance in the video for Smith’s song By Any Means.

Smith has also praised the 23-year-old Loughborough University swimmer for her work with the Black Swimming Association (BSA).

Dearing is a co-founder of the BSA, which is working closely with Swim England to in a bid to further increase the numbers of the BME population participating in aquatic activity.

The two organisations agreed a formal partnership in March and aim to break down the barriers that prevent certain groups from taking part in swimming.

In her tweets, Smith, who was named Best British Female Artist at the 2019 Brit Awards, wrote: “Alice Dearing is a 23-year-old British marathon swimmer who became world junior champion in 2016.

“She is currently swimming and studying at Loughborough University with the goal of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics games in 2021. If she does so, she will be the first black woman to represent Great Britain in a swimming event at the Olympics.

“She has also helped co-found the Black Swimming Association (BSA) a non-profit organisation which is looking to increase diversity in aquatic areas and break down the barriers which prevent BIPOC people from swimming.

“Alice is advocating for everyone from all walks of life to have the vital, life-saving skill of knowing how to swim.”

Dearing, who was crowned World Junior Open Water champion in 2016, replied with: “I’m speechless… was so excited when I was asked to be part of ‘By Any Means’ and love what @JorjaSmith is doing for the culture.”

Dearing was also involved in the Swim England campaign to #OpenOurPools.

She was interviewed by BBC News after the Government failed to announce the opening of swimming pools across the country during the first phase of easing the coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

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