Podcast 21 | Ben chats to Alice Dearing, open water swimmer and the first black athlete to represent Team GB in a swimming event at the Olympics.
Alice Dearing is a professional swimmer and Olympian. Dearing is of Ghanaian and English heritage. She was born in 1997 in Birmingham and was a keen swimmer from the age of nine. She studied at the Royal Wolverhampton School and, during her time there, began swimming competitively, finishing fourth in the 2014 World Junior Open Water championships. In 2016 she took the World Junior Open Water title in a nail-biting finish to give Britain its first gold medal at the Open Water Championship.
In 2016 Hearing was selected for the Podium Potential programme run by British Swimming. The programme aimed to provide additional support and guidance for those seen to have medal-winning potential at the 2020 games.
In 2019, Dearing began a degree at Loughborough University studying Social Media and Political Communication. At Loughborough, she continued to train under coach Andi Manley with the goal of Olympic selection at the forefront.
Her selection for the Tokyo 2020 games made her the first black woman to represent Great Britain in an Olympic swimming event. Dearing faced challenging conditions and a water temperature of 25 degrees in the Odaiba Marine Park. After qualifying in fourth place, she ended the race in 19th place and now has her sights set on the Olympics in Paris in 2024.
Dearing has become an ambassador for black swimming and co-founded the Black Swimming Association alongside rapper and film producer Ed Accura. The association is supported by Swim England and aims to grow participation in swimming by the black community. A recent study by Sport England showed that 95% of black adults do not swim, and the charity aims to raise the profile of black swimmers and encourage more members of the community to take up swimming.
Connect with Alice:
- Website – https://www.britishswimming.org/athlete-swimming-profiles/british-swimming-profiles/alice-dearing/
- Instagram – @alicedearingx
- Twitter – @alicedearingx
- LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-dearing-5ab64517b/?originalSubdomain=uk
- Show Notes – benryan.co.uk/podcasts
- Felix Auboeck – https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/olympic-games//en/results/swimming/athlete-profile-n1331295-auboeck-felix.htm
- Paris Olympic Games – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Summer_Olympics
- Anna Hopkin – https://www.britishswimming.org/athlete-swimming-profiles/british-swimming-profiles/anna-hopkin/
- Paul Marshall – https://www.teamgb.com/article/black-history-month-alice-dearing-and-the-story-of-paul-marshall/7Kdw7Zrej0lCDARz7WuLSn
- gal-dem Magazine – https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/10/offering-something-people-didnt-get-meet-gal-dem-team
- Simone Manuel – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Manuel
- Alia Atkinson – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alia_Atkinson
- Michael Gunning – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gunning
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