Guy eyes success at Commonwealth Games as he looks to seal place among swimming's greats
BySportsbeat
Published 23/10/2017 at 17:24 GMT
Double Olympic silver medallist James Guy believes next year's Commonwealth Games will be the perfect platform to begin cementing his name in the history books alongside some of the greats of his sport.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The British swimmer built on his Rio success at the World Championships in the summer, where he produced the team's fastest split on the anchor leg as Great Britain defended their 4x200m freestyle relay title, before bagging a bronze in the 100m butterfly.
The former Millfield School swimmer clocked a new personal best en route to that butterfly final, touching home in a British record of 50.67s.
And, having been included in the first wave of Swim England's squad for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games next April, Guy's success on the world stage in a post-Olympic year has filled him with belief that he can go on to achieve even greater.
"I want to become the greatest Commonwealth swimmer of all time," said Guy, who finished on top of the podium four times at the British Championships in April.
"I want to match the set of medals that Chad le Clos and Ian Thorpe have got. It's a big ask, but I know I can do it.
"The Europeans are in the summer, so I think next year is quite an off year.
"It's before we race the Americans and the Chinese again at the World Championships and Olympics in the coming years, so it will be kind of a slow year, but it's nice to have that I think."
Guy's quest to achieve his future ambitions are rooted in his newly found independence, which has seen the 21-year-old uproot from Somerset to move to the University of Bath's National Centre for Swimming.
And while it was a change from the home comforts the Bury-born swimmer was used to, it was one that has inspired him to strive for more following his two podium finishes in his maiden Olympic Games.
"Moving on from Rio, ideally I wanted to try and just get stronger and faster," said Guy.
"I knew I had the technical aspects in the pool, it's just kind of being stronger and having more stamina.
"I'm loving it at Bath, it's down to me now, whereas before I would be at home with my family around me.
"I've got all the facilities here from the sports scientists to the physio, we are all part of one team together now and I needed that change."
And it is perhaps little surprise that Guy's recent achievements have seen him nominated in the Swimming Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Tenerife Top Training, category at the British Swimming Awards.
Guy is up against Adam Peaty and Ben Proud for the award but he sees his nomination as special enough.
"Being nominated for that award is very big. You've got the likes of Adam Peaty – he's the big star at the moment and Ben Proud has been nominated as well," he concluded.
"To be there with the likes of those boys is fantastic. We are all great friends and I'm sure it will be a great evening.
"I think winning the award would be a great honour, I know it would be quite tough, we are part of a team together and hopefully will celebrate afterwards."
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