In 2012 British swimmers were happy to come fifth or sixth but we are now third in the medal table with eight medals
James Guy leant back against the wall, too tired to think, too tired to talk. Guy swam seven races in the past five days, the last of them, the butterfly leg of the men’s 4x100m medley relay, just an hour earlier. It had been one of the hardest, and most intense races of his life, and they had lost it to the USA. Now the media wanted to ask him and his teammates all those familiar questions about how it felt, and whether he was disappointed or not. Guy’s usually happy to prattle but this time he closed his eyes, let his teammates do it for him. Until someone asked a question that got his attention.
It was about how the culture of British swimming has changed in recent years. Guy is 25, which makes him one of the senior figures on this young team, and he wanted to tell a story which he thought summed it all up. “Eight years ago I made the senior team for the first time,” Guy said, “and I remember at my first world championships, every day we’d have a team meeting, and in it we’d all clap for whoever had made a final that day.” He laughs at it now. “And here we are, we’ve got second, and we’re upset with that, and that shows you the way things have moved on.”