Alice Georgina Dearing (born 23 April 1997) is a British

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

, specialising in open water events. In June 2021, Dearing qualified to represent Great Britain in the 2020 Olympics. Dearing co-founded the Black Swimming Association in 2020. The charity was founded to encourage swimming among BME communities in Britain, and has the support of

Swim England Swim England is the national governing body for swimming, diving, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronised swimming in England. It forms part of British Swimming, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scotland ( Scott ...

Biography

Dearing grew up in a suburb of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

and started swimming at the age of about eight or nine. She studied at the Royal Wolverhampton School and was accepted to

Loughborough University Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...

to study Social Media and Political Communication, and is coached there by Andi Manley. She has Ghanaian and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

heritage and is the third black swimmer to represent Great Britain competitively, following Paul Marshall at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

and Achieng Ajulu-Bushell who represented the team in 2010. She was the first black female swimmer to represent Britain at an Olympic competition in 2021, when she competed in the 10km marathon swim.

Swimming career and achievements

Dearing finished fourth in the 7.5 km event at the 2014 World Junior Open Water championships, and took the European Junior

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

in 2015. In 2016 she became 10 km World Junior Open Water champion, overtaking Nikoletta Kiss in the final 50 metres with a sprint finish to finish 0.5 seconds ahead in 2:04:24.1. This was the first British

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

win at a World Junior Open Water Championship. She made her senior international competitive debut at the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

. In the women's 10 km event at the

2019 World Aquatics Championships The 2019 World Aquatics Championships were the 18th FINA World Aquatics Championships, held in Gwangju, South Korea from 12 to 28 July 2019. The city had previously hosted the 2015 Summer Universiade aquatics events in the same venues.

Dearing finished 17th and missed out on qualifying for the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. Dearing achieved the best result of her senior career to date at the FINA Marathon Swim World Series event in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

in February 2020, finishing tenth in 1:56.47.5, less than seven seconds slower than

list

Leonie Beck Leonie Antonia Beck (born 27 May 1997) is a German swimmer. She competed in the women's 800 metre freestyle event at the 2016 Summer Olympics. At the 2022 European Aquatics Championships, held in Rome, Italy with open water swimming at Ostia i ...

. In 2016, Dearing was one of the 33 people selected for British Swimming’s Podium Potential programme, which was targeted at swimmers that were believed to have the potential to win a medal at the 2020 Olympic Games. In 2018 she was selected with 37 others as part of the

British Swimming British Swimming is the national governing body of swimming, water polo, synchronised swimming, diving and open water in Great Britain.

World Class Performance Programme, which offered members training and competition opportunities and a better level of assistance from British Swimming performance staff. Dearing competed in the women's 10 km marathon swim at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics finishing in 19th place, having qualified for the event by finishing fourth in the FINA Marathon Swim Qualifier 2021 in Setubal, Portugal.

References

External links

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BBC Sport video
- The British swimmer breaking down barriers {{DEFAULTSORT:Dearing, Alice 1997 births Living people British female swimmers Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Loughborough University Sportspeople from Birmingham, West Midlands English people of Ghanaian descent Black British sportswomen People educated at the Royal Wolverhampton School Female long-distance swimmers 21st-century British women