James Guy believes last year’s successful World Championships could be just the start for British swimming as he looks towards his Olympic debut in Rio.
Guy announced himself on the world stage in Kazan last summer, claiming 400m freestyle silver and 200m freestyle gold, becoming the first British man to win a world freestyle title.
And, alongside fellow world champion Adam Peaty, he heads up a 26-strong Team GB swimming squad, which also includes Commonwealth and European champion Jazz Carlin and experienced world medallists and London 2012 campaigners Fran Halsall and Hannah Miley.
While Team GB enjoyed a home Games to remember in London, Michael Jamieson’s silver and Rebecca Adlington’s double bronze were the only podium performances in the pool.
But Guy is confident they’ll make a big splash in Rio, with head coach Bill Furniss sounding confident about a team he claims has 'no passengers'.
“We’ve got more medal contenders than we had in London,” said Guy.
"Everyone is swimming faster, last year was the best World Championships we have ever had and I think there is rightly more expectation than there was four years.
“I think we can deliver and we are in the right head-space. The work has been done and it’s just about fine-tuning things leading up to the Games.
“It’s great that this team is about more than one or two swimmers, it means we all share the responsibility. Adam and I are great friends and we shared a room at the Worlds and hopefully we can at the Olympics too. He’s an animal in the pool and we both like to push each other to bigger and better things."
Guy’s first Olympic memory was watching the fabled 200m freestyle final in Athens, labelled by commentators as the 'race of the century'.
Though only eight, he recalls shouting at the television as his childhood hero, Australian world record holder Ian Thorpe, just held off defending champion Pieter van den Hoogenband and Michael Phelps in one of the most dramatic finishes in Olympic swimming history.
Guy - now 20 - is dreaming of repeating Thorpe’s 200m and 400m freestyle double and the race over the shorter distance is already shaping up to possibly match that classic battle 12 years ago, with Phelps, Ryan Lochte and China’s Sun Yang in the mix alongside the Brit.
“My events are incredibly competitive and they’ll be stacked with world-class talent,” he added.
“It’s weird to hear my name mentioned because I still see myself as the goon around the poolside, who loves his sport and likes to push himself hard in training.
“But at last year’s Worlds I felt like I belonged to race with these guys and they’ve become good friends, it’s just an honour to compete against them and I can't wait to get to Rio."
Sportsbeat 2016