Oliver Davies

Sports Award

Age:

14

Biography

I started swimming lessons when I was 5 and took to the water like a fish! I loved it - I even did many sponsored swims at a young age and knew I had a natural flair. Soon my swimming teacher was telling my parents that they should think about joining a local swim club. I joined Leicester Penguins at the age of 8 and qualified for my first county swim competition at the age of 9 achieving a trophy as runner up in my age category. 2020 came and I manage to compete in another counties competition achieving another trophy as a runner up in my age category. Then covid hit the world and we were in lockdown. This hit me hard - I missed the water and I missed swimming! Determined - I kept my fitness up with going for runs and doing land training outside, or inside on zoom with fellow swimmers. This was key as I wanted to be ready once we were allowed back in the pool.

I was over the moon to be selected to join City of Leicester Swim Club (COLSC) in 2021. This is an elite talent pathway performance swim club to help achieve Regional and National swimmers reach their full potential. I went straight into the Regional Squad and was only there a year before moving up to the National Age Group.

My parents work hard to provide me with so many opportunities to swim and do what I love! They take me to swim competitions all over the UK - I raced in Sunderland in January and I will be swimming in Sheffield in March and Bristol in April to help beat my PBS (personal best times) to qualify for Regional and National competitions. I am already the Junior Champion in the Leicestershire and Rutland County for the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle races in 2024. I am currently the East Midlands Junior Champion in the 1500m Freestyle receiving a gold medal and was rewarded the bronze medal in the 800m Freestyle. I was selected to swim for The English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) in 2023 and I claimed the bronze medal in the 400m Freestyle.

My ultimate dream is to swim at the Olympics and represent Team GB - this is a big dream I know! But I work hard every week, every day to achieve this. I attend swim training early in the morning (2 hour sessions 5-7am) before school and I swim again for 2 hours in the evenings after school. I am currently on the Swim England National Age Group Pathway (2023-2024) where I was selected to go to seminars and day camp training sessions. This has been an addition to my everyday swim schedule and I'm thoroughly enjoying being on it. It is an honour to be under this Swim England programme. All helping to achieve my dream.

This grant from the Trust will go towards the cost to help me to attend the swim camp in Tenerife to help my performance - to train hard in a state of the art high performance Sports complex. Many National swim teams have used the centre such as Great Britain, Italy, France, Japan, Russia, Portugal and Switzerland. The centre attracts many Elite Swimming Clubs from around Europe - I now have the opportunity to train there too after being selected in February 2025. This will help me achieve my goal of improving my performance which in turn will improve my PB swim times to ensure I qualify for the National swimming competitions.

Thank you to JHMT and the Inspire Awards for giving me the opportunity to pursue my dream of one day swimming for Team GB.