Aquatics GB has named a 36-swimmer squad for the European Aquatics Championships in Paris from 10 to 16 August, billed by the federation as "one of the strongest British line-ups in recent memory" and the country's largest continental team since the Rome 2022 cycle.
The selection covers 23 men and 13 women. It is led by 17-time European champion Adam Peaty, who returned to British title-winning form at the Aquatics GB Championships in London in April when he reclaimed the 50m breaststroke title with one of the fastest times of his career outside an Olympic year.
Peaty is joined by fellow Tokyo 2020 medallists Tom Dean and Duncan Scott, both of whom have spent stretches of the past 18 months managing injuries. Dean, the Olympic 200m freestyle champion in Tokyo, has been progressing through Loughborough's pool programme since November and was confirmed by Aquatics GB performance staff as fit to race a full Paris programme. Scott, a 10-time European champion, completes the leadership group alongside seven-time European champion James Guy and Mollie O'Callaghan-bound 200m freestyle standout Matt Richards.
The team's emerging core arrives at the Championships in form. Angharad Evans and Freya Colbert both broke British records in London in April; Lauren Cox and Abbie Wood return after strong performances at the Aquatics GB Championships, and 22-year-old Filip Nowacki — current European junior record holder over 200m breaststroke — earns his first senior continental call-up. Jack Skerry, the European U23 champion, joins the men's distance freestyle group alongside Jack McMillan.
Aquatics GB Performance Director Andy Salmon described the goal heading into Paris as to "equal or better their finish of third in the swimming medal table back in 2022's edition" in Rome. The team finished sixth in the medal table at the Belgrade 2024 European Championships after a year of transition following the Paris Olympics.
The squad's selection comes off the back of the Aquatics GB Championships at the London Aquatics Centre, where Peaty, Richards and Anna Hopkin won marquee events and a series of British records fell. Notable absences include 1500m freestyle British record holder Daniel Jervis, who has opted to skip Paris in favour of an extended training block before the World Aquatics Short Course Championships in Bucharest in November, and Jacob Whittle, who is recovering from a shoulder issue.
The European Aquatics Championships will run alongside artistic swimming, diving, water polo and open water events at the same Paris pool that hosted the 2024 Olympic Games. The pool itself has been re-rigged for the long-course meet after a winter of repairs to the bulkheads installed for the Olympic competition.
For Peaty, the championships represent the latest stop on a road back to relevance after his 2025 short-course campaign was disrupted by training interruptions. For Aquatics GB, Paris is the first major test of their LA 2028 cycle and the first time the senior team has been measured outside the Olympic year since the Tokyo 2021 reset.
