James Gibson,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

is an English former competitive swimmer and breaststroke who represented Great Britain in the Olympics, FINA world championships and European championships, and England in the Commonwealth Games. He is a former world, European and Commonwealth champion in the men's 50-metre breaststroke event, and now serves as the head swimming coach at the

Energy Standard Swim Club Energy Standard are one of the four founding European teams for the International Swimming League. The team is based in Paris, France and trains out of the Gloria Sports Arena in Belek, Turkey. The team won each of their matches in the first se ...

. __NOTOC__ Born in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, and raised in

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Che ...

. He first started swimming at Witham Dolphins swimming club in Essex and is now the clubs lifelong president, Gibson's primary swimming stroke is the breaststroke and he competed in the 50-, 100- and 200-metre events. In 2003 he became world champion at 50 metres (long-course). He was 6th in the 100 metre event at the Athens Olympics in 2004. A year earlier, at the

2003 Summer Universiade The 2003 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXII Summer Universiade, took place in Daegu, South Korea. Emblem * The alphabet letter "U" and five stars, which is FISU's emblem, make up the basis of the emblem for the Daegu Universiade. * It sym ...

, he won titles in both the 50- and 100-metre breaststroke. In choosing three words to describe himself, Gibson has said, "confidence, positive and pecs",BBC Sport- "Swim king Gibson honoured"
/ref> referring to his prodigious

pectoral muscles Pectoral muscles (colloquially referred to as "pecs") are the muscles that connect the front of the human chest with the bones of the upper arm and shoulder. This region contains four muscles that provide movements to the upper limbs or ribs. P ...

. On a 2003 edition of the sports-comedy quiz show ''

They Think It's All Over "They think it's all over" is a quote from Kenneth Wolstenholme's BBC TV commentary in the closing moments of the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final, when England beat West Germany 4–2 after extra time to win the FIFA World Cup. In the final few seco ...

'' he admitted to rippling his chest muscles before races in order to "freak out" the opposition. He was appointed

in the 2004 New Year's Honours. Gibson's club was Loughborough University where he was coached by Ben Titley. He is now a coach himself at the

primarily training in Turkey.

Personal bests and records held

References

External links

Personal bests and records held

See also

References

External links