Golden night in Paris as Bath swimmers Tom Dean and Kieran Bird help Britain defend freestyle relay title in magnificent fashion
Tom Dean won the third Olympic gold of his career to date and Kieran Bird claimed his first as the University of Bath-based swimmers helped Great Britain retain their men’s 4x200m freestyle title in magnificent fashion at Paris 2024 tonight.
Dean once again teamed up with Duncan Scott and former Aquatics GB Bath Performance Centre training partners James Guy and Matt Richards to win Britain’s first swimming gold medal of the Games in the Paris La Defense Arena.
The quartet have dominated the event in recent years, winning gold at both the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021 and at the 2023 World Championships in Japan.
Bird – who, like Dean, has trained at the Team Bath Sports Training Village since 2018 – also received a gold medal, along with Jack McMillan, after teaming up with Guy and Dean to make impressive progress through the earlier heats.
Tonight’s success for former Bill Whiteley Sporting Scholar Dean and Bird, coached by David McNulty and Jamie Main respectively, means that 15 medals have now been won in total by Bath Performance Centre swimmers at the past four Olympic Games.
Bird is also the 12th athlete to be crowned as Olympic Champion while training at the University of Bath, a UK Sport-accredited Elite Training Centre.
Stephen Baddeley, Director of Sport at the University of Bath, said: “Congratulations to Tom, Kieran, their team-mates and coaches on a magnificent achievement. To go into an Olympic Games as defending champions and pre-event favourites provides a huge amount of pressure but they have taken that in their stride and once again delivered when it matters most.
“Tom wears the mantle of Olympic Champion well – he is friendly, dedicated, supportive of the University in and out of the pool, and a true inspiration to everyone at the Team Bath Sports Training Village. Congratulations to him on becoming a triple Olympic gold-medallist.
“We are also absolutely delighted for Kieran, who swam superbly in the heats. He joined the Bath Performance Centre at the same time as Tom in 2018 and it is wonderful to see him rewarded for his hard work. Congratulations also to their coaches, David and Jamie, and the rest of the staff at the Bath Performance Centre.
“It has been a memorable day all round with this success following the superb silver-medal success of Prisca Awiti-Alcaraz in the judo and fellow Bath alumna Becky Wilde reaching the women’s double scull final on her Olympic debut. Congratulations all.”
Dean will be back in the pool at 11am BST on Thursday for the 200m individual medley heats, with the final scheduled for 7.43pm BST on Friday 2nd August.
Top picture credit: Sam Mellish/Team GB.
