Peaty headlines British Swimming's podium programme for 2018

Olympic champion Adam Peaty headlines a 19-strong squad selected for British Swimming’s podium programme ahead of the 2018 season.

Peaty, who won Team GB’s first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Games, is one of seven Olympic medallists named on the programme, including double silver medallists James Guy and Jazz Carlin.

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, who won 200m individual medley silver is also named, in addition to Chris Walker-Hebborn, Stephen Milne and Duncan Scott.

Great Britain’s swimmers won seven medals at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest in July, including four golds – two of which were won by Peaty in the breaststroke events.

In order to determine nominations to UK Sport, British Swimming undertakes a full analysis of athletes’ current and past performances to assess their potential to win Olympic medals in the future.

In addition to the 19 athletes selected for the podium programme, 37 further swimmers complete British Swimming’s World Class Performance Programme for the year ahead.

“The sport enjoyed a successful 2017 but we know that our aims and ambitions don’t end there,” said British Swimming national performance director Chris Spice.

“This year’s investment is going to enable our talented swimmers to continue to achieve their performance targets as they set their sights on Tokyo 2020.

“We have seen some very good performances at the World Championships in Budapest this year but the focus of the programme remains on how we develop independent resilient athletes able to perform anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

“Performing a season’s best at the major meet of the year remains the priority of our athletes at all levels. We still have work to do in this area but this year provides a great platform for moving forward.”

Athletes selected for the Podium programme are:

Jack Burnell

Jazz Carlin

Kathleen Dawson

James Guy

Nick Grainger

Holly Hibbott

Calum Jarvis

Max Litchfield

Hannah Miley

Stephen Milne

Ross Murdoch

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor

Adam Peaty

Ben Proud

Molly Renshaw

Duncan Scott

Sarah Vasey

Chris Walker-Hebborn

Aimee Willmott

Sportsbeat 2017