Swim England DiSE squad head to Stockholm for Swedish Grand Prix

A 57-strong group of swimmers from Swim England’s Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) programme are travelling to Stockholm for the Swedish Grand Prix.

The meet, which is regularly used by Swim England’s talent team to give younger athletes a taste of international competition, marks the perfect opportunity for the swimmers to prepare for the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

Last year, Swim England’s DiSE team topped the podium 21 times at the event across the three days in Sweden and they’ll be looking to repeat that success this weekend.

It will be an integrated team with a number of para-swimmers also making the trip to where they’ll be joined by a team of 17 staff members that includes members of the Swim England team, coaches, physiotherapists and a recovery specialist.

They’ll fly out to the Swedish capital on Thursday morning before getting a chance to train at the pool on Friday morning ahead of the first event later in the day.

The 400m Individual Medley and 1500m Freestyle events kick off the action on Friday before a morning of heats and an evening of finals on Saturday and Sunday.

Finals will start at 4pm (GMT) on Friday and Saturday and 3pm on Sunday whilst the morning sessions will commence at 9am on Saturday and 8am on Sunday.

You can follow the action with the event’s live results page throughout the competition by clicking here.

A great opportunity

Ahead of the event Swim England DiSE Assesor Manager and Team Leader for the trip, Darren Sims, hopes the experience will prove vital for the athletes development.

He said: “We’re really excited to be heading back to Sweden for the Swedish Grand Prix this weekend.

“We have a talented group of athletes travelling with us who can hopefully use this experience to develop their skills in and out of the water.

“For some athletes this may be their first time representing England overseas so it’s a great opportunity to enhance their arena skills as they prepare for their major events later in the season.

“Alongside that we’ll be continuing to factor in the educational side of the programme, reflecting on our performances and using their experiences to take back with them into their home programmes.

“We have an incredible team of practitioners and support staff travelling to Sweden to support them and they’ll be sharing their wealth of knowledge with the swimmers throughout the weekend.”

You can find out more about the Swedish Grand Prix on the event’s website, with the full schedule and results available on swimify.

A further DiSE team will also be heading to Sweden later this month for the Linkoping Water Games from Thursday 27 to Monday 31 March.