Alice Dearing: Team GB’s history-making swimmer pushing to change narrative

Swimming trailblazer Alice Dearing was one of the latest guests on the new season of The Game Changers podcast.

The 25-year-old made a crucial piece of history last year when she became the first black female swimmer to represent Great Britain at the Olympics.

Dearing is also the co-founder of the Black Swimming Association, an organisation that advocates water safety and aquatic inclusion for individuals of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage.

Speaking to Sue Anstiss on The Game Changers, Dearing discussed the early stages of her career, training as a woman of Ghanian heritage, and her milestone for diversity in sport at Tokyo 2020.

Dearing specialises in open water events, meaning she mainly competes in outdoor bodies of water such as lakes and oceans.

In 2016, she won Britain’s first ever gold medal at the World Junior Open Water Championship by winning the 10km event. She has since competed at the World Aquatics Championships and the Olympic Games, but like all sporting passions, Dearing’s hard work started from a young age.

She looked back at just how much time and commitment she set aside for swimming when she was just a child, and on reflection, can barely believe it.

“We started off with one session a week and then [it] quickly escalated to two, and then three, four. By the time I was nine, I think I was swimming six times a week, which is kind of crazy. 

“From age 11, I was doing seven sessions a week and now I’ve currently progressed to 10 sessions a week. So it’s been crazy. Like when I say it all out loud, it sounds absolutely insane. And I don’t really know how me and my mum did it.

“She would wake up at 4.30 in the morning, take me to school, she’d come back home. I would swim, do school, swim again at