Ben Proud, Laura Stephens and Honey Osrin named in the Team GB squad

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Ben Proud is one of three Plymouth swimmers that have been named in the Team GB swimming squad at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Proud gained selection having won the 50 metre freestyle event at the recent Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and going inside the relevant event’s nomination standard, as per clause 5.1 of the selection policy.

Proud, a three-time world champion, and who has won multiple European and Commonwealth golds, has won medals in the 50m freestyle at the last three world championships. But the 29-year-old has never won an Olympic medal.

He will be joined by Plymouth Leander swimmer Honey Osrin, who won gold in the women’s 200m backstroke and bronze in the 100m event. Osrin, who swapped Cape Town for Devon aged 13 and represents Plymouth Leander Swimming Club, stormed to women’s 200m backstroke gold to earn her first senior title and book an Olympic debut.

Laura Stephens is the third qualifier after placing second in a final at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and going inside the relevant event’s nomination time, as per clause 5.5 of the selection policy. The former Plymouth Leander star ended a 13-year British drought when she stormed to victory in the 200m butterfly in Doha earlier this year, becoming her country’s first female individual world swimming champion since Rebecca Adlington.

Adlington famously won two golds in Beijing 16 years ago and Stephens earned the chance to follow in her glittering footsteps by finishing second in her final at the British Championships a fortnight ago. Stephens is one of ten swimmers making their debut for Team GB in a squad that includes seven Olympic champions and nine Olympic medallists, with action in the pool getting underway on July 27 in the French capital. In total, 33 athletes will compete for Team GB in the swimming event, ten for the first time at an Olympics.