Paris 2024 places on the line at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships

It won’t be just pride and glory at stake when the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships 2024 get underway at the London Aquatics Centre on Tuesday.

The meet serves up as a late Easter treat for British fans as six days of competition takes place from Tuesday 2 until Sunday 7 April.

Athletes across England and the home nations have been building towards this moment as Team GB’s first swimming and para swimming places at Paris 2024 are decided in the nation’s capital.

The biggest names in both disciplines will be in attendance including the likes of Adam Peaty, Maisie Summers-Newton, Alice Tai and Tom Dean as they look to seal their places on the Olympic and Paralympic teams this summer.

As well as a place in Paris, the prestige of being crowned British champion is on offer to the winner of each of the individual events across the six days.

There’s plenty more at stake at the Championships too with the meet being a vital selection opportunity for both senior and junior athletes.

This includes a chance at staking a claim to be a part of the European Swimming Championships team in June or the European Junior Championships squad in July as well as just having the opportunity to race and set new personal best times in front of the TV cameras and a packed crowd at the home of the London 2012 aquatics events.

Stars on show

All entries to the competition have been accepted from those that reached the consideration times meaning it will be a packed field of the nation’s top swimmers all week long.

Amongst those is Peaty, who will be looking to continue his road to his third Men’s 100m Breaststroke title in a row in Paris whilst Dean swims in three events as he targets a British record of five Olympic medals this summer.

James Guy aims to make his third Olympic Games as the 28-year-old comes off the back of a new 100m freestyle personal best time at the British Universities and Colleges Sport Swimming Championships (BUCS) last month.

Manchester 2023 para swimming world champions William Ellard and Jordan Catchpole are amongst a strong group of para swimmers looking to secure their place in France later this year.

Ellard will be one of the busiest swimmers of the meet as he’s entered in five events whilst Paralympic champion Catchpole takes on four races in London.

On the women’s side and 2024 world champion Laura Stephens will look to continue her fine form in the Women’s 200m Butterfly whilst teenager Amelie Blocksidge will look to stun the nation across the distance events.

Alicia Wilson was one of the standout swimmers at the Olympic trials ahead of the Games in Tokyo as she looks to make it back-to-back Games appearances on her return from the United States.

Paralympic champions Ellie Challis, Alice Tai and Summers-Newton are just three of GB’s Paralympic hopefuls who are all gunning for glory in Paris.

Leah Crisp and Toby Robinson have already booked their places in Paris on Team GB’s Open Water Swimming squad but the duo will also be competing in London throughout the week.

Robinson will take to the pool in both the Open/Men’s 800m Freestyle and 1500m Freestyle whilst Crisp will swim in the Women’s 400m and 800m Freestyle events.

Each able bodied event (400m distance and below) will have an open, B and junior final and they’ll also be a multi-classification para swimming final. The fastest heats of the longest distance events will also be swum in the finals session so there’s plenty to keep your eye on this week.

Where to watch and follow

A number of Swim England’s senior and junior performance squad swimmers are 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 Channel 4.

Aquatics GB announced last week that the two national broadcasters will be showcasing their flagship event so you can keep up with the action throughout the week.

The BBC will broadcast every finals session on the BBC IPlayer and on the BBC Sport website and app whilst Channel 4 will show the heats and finals each day on their streaming platform and on their YouTube channel.

Heats get underway at 10am each morning with the evening’s finals session set to begin at 7pm.

For those unable to watch live, BBC Radio 5 Live Extra will also be providing coverage of the British Swimming Championships whilst live results will be available here.