Paris stars return to London for Aquatics GB Swimming Championships

The wait is almost over as Team GB’s Olympic and Paralympic stars return to home soil for the 2025 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

The biggest swimming event of the domestic calendar dives into action tomorrow (Tuesday 15 April) as the nation’s stars kickstart the latest four-year cycle.

The road to LA begins in the nation’s capital as the London Aquatics Centre welcomes around 1000 of Britain’s best swimmers and para-swimmers for six days of world class racing to the home of the London 2012 Games.

Alice Tai, Tom Dean, Maisie Summers-Newton and James Guy are amongst the a-list competitors at the Championships that are looking to impress in front of a packed crowd in London.

They’ll be battling out for British titles as well as being one of those looking to earn their place at the upcoming World Championships for the swimmers at the end of July and para swimmers in September.

It’s also a key selection meet for numerous junior teams, including the World and European Junior Swimming Championships, U23 European Swimming Championships and European Youth Olympic Festival.

Similar to last year, those who meet qualifying standards and finish in the top two in their event will be among the 30 British swimmers heading to Singapore for the World Championships this summer.

They’ll join those that have already been pre-selected for the event after winning Olympic medals in Paris.

Last summer, Ben Proud booked his place on the plan after his silver in the 50m Freestyle whilst Guy and Dean have qualified through their 4x200m Freestyle Relay title alongside Matt Richards and Duncan Scott. Adam Peaty’s 100m Breaststroke silver would’ve also booked him a place in Singapore but the three time Olympic champion has opted to take a break before starting his build up to LA 2028 where he’ll be hoping to become the first-ever Olympic champion in the 50m Breaststroke.

Stars of today and tomorrow on show

Guy will however look to secure gold in arguably the most highly anticipated event of the Championships in the Men’s 200m Freestyle.

He joins his Paris relay partners in Richards and Scott in the competitions finale on Sunday in what was one of the most competitive races in British history 12 months ago.

The trio went head-to-head with Dean, the Tokyo Olympic champion in the event, a year ago where Richards narrowly came out on top ahead of Scott and Guy before the quartet came together to defend the 4x200m relay title at the Olympics.

Dean however will not be racing the 200m this time around as he eases his way back into competition with just the 100m freestyle on his programme after returning to training in January.

The women’s side of the event actually opens up the competition on the opening night where Paralympic champions Poppy Maskill, Olivia Newman-Baronius and Louise Fiddes all clash in the multi-classification event.

There’s 11 Paralympic medals between the three top seeds going into that event which is just as competitive on the Olympic pathway side where Freya Colbert, Abbie Wood and Freya Anderson will go head-to-head.

The opening night also sees the battle to succeed Adam Peaty’s 100m Breaststroke throne where teenager Max Morgan looks to back up his Swim England National Winter Championship title with British gold.

Wednesday’s racing sees another young gun in action as 16-year-old Amelie Blocksidge looks to make it a three-peat of British titles in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle, whilst Paralympic champions Tully Kearney and Ellie Challis both go for gold in the MC Women’s 50m Backstroke.

On Thursday the Men’s 100m Butterfly and Women’s 200m Backstroke are races that you won’t want to miss before Good Friday will see Dean’s return to the pool in the 100m freestyle.

He brings in the Easter weekend on a star-studded Friday that also sees Tokyo Olympic medallist Luke Greenbank and double Paralympic champion Will Ellard take to the water.

Proud will then look to retain his Men’s 50m Freestyle domestic crown on Saturday before that exciting 200m freestyle finale on Sunday evening.

Where to watch and follow

A number of Swim England’s senior and junior performance squad swimmers are also in action as well as some of those on the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) programme who you can watch live across BBC Sport and Aquatics GB’s platforms.

The British governing body recently agreed a deal with the BBC to showcase the flagship event across BBC IPlayer and on the BBC Sport website and app.

They will be showing every finals session live whilst full coverage will be available on Aquatics GB’s YouTube channel.

Heats get underway at 9:30am each morning with the evening’s B-Finals starting at 6pm before the A and Junior finals close the show at 7pm each evening.

For those unable to watch live, BBC Radio 5 Live Extra will also be providing coverage of the Championships, with live commentary for Sunday’s finals session that includes the highly anticipated Men’s 200m Freestyle Final.

There’s also a live results that will be updated throughout the week and can be found here.

The key platforms to follow all of this week’s action 📲💻

Heats at 9:30am ✅
Finals coverage at 6:45pm 🚨 pic.twitter.com/AFMgZWHnyC

— Aquatics GB (@Aquatics_GB) April 14, 2025