Aquatics GB has announced a small team of six swimmers will compete at next month’s World Short Course Championships in Beijing.
Matt Richards heads to the Chinese capital to end a year in which he added European titles and Commonwealth medals to his silverware collection although the overall outcomes fell short of his own expectations.
So much so that he told Swimming World that he’d return all the silverware he won in the years between the Tokyo Olympics and Paris 2024 if it meant he could’ve won individual gold at the latter.
It was announced last month that the Welshman is heading to the Florida Gators in spring 2027, a move that will provide him with race practice and a different training environment headed by Anthony Nesty.
While Richards has made four trips to the European short-course podium, he has yet to make a trip to the global equivalent with sixth in the 4×100 free five years ago in Abu Dhabi the closest he has come having not competed at the 2022 and 2024 editions.
Richards is joined by Oli Morgan, who won treble backstroke silver behind Pieter Coetze at the Commonwealth Games in July. Morgan won his first international medals at last year’s short-course Europeans in Lublin, Poland.
Freya Colbert and Abbie Wood will travel to Beijing with World Aquatics Wildcards following their performances on the World Cup circuit. Colbert won two relay golds and 200 free bronze at the European Championships this summer and has four continental medals across two championships.
Wood – part of the British women’s 4×2 team that won European gold in Paris alongside Colbert – made three trips to the podium at the 2024 edition in Budapest. That included the IM/breaststroke specialist leading off the GB women’s medley relay squad that won silver in a national record of 3:47.84.
Backstroke specialists Matt Ward and Cameron Brooker also make the trip. Ward won mixed medley relay bronze with Team Scotland at Glasgow 2026 with Brooker claiming two relay silvers with Team England.
Great Britain Squad For World Short Course Championships, Beijing, 1-6 December
Cameron Brooker
Freya Colbert
Oli Morgan
Matt Richards
Matthew Ward
Abbie Wood
