Swim England is the National Governing Body for aquatics in England and is responsible for the delivery of the Great Britain performance pathway for Swimming, in line with the Swim England vision Great experiences in water. For all. For life. A foundation goal of the One Swim England strategy is “Success on the World Stage” – this policy is written in line with this ambition.
To deliver against this goal, the talent mission is to “develop the strength and depth of the aquatic pathway through effective athlete development, in order to achieve high performance”. The performance pathway aims to deliver this through six objectives;
- PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT
- SPORTING CULTURE AND IDENTITY
- EFFECTIVE ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT
- OPTIMAL PLANNING
- PERFORMANCE AND PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENTS
- EFFECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS
This selection information applies to the following Swimming National Programmes and competition activities (all of which are a “programme” and make up the “national programme”):
- Senior Performance Squad
- Youth Performance Squad
- National Youth Development Programme
- Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE)
- National Age Group Development Programme
- Para-Swimming Talent
- Any other programme or competition that Swim England are responsible for and;
- Any competition attended by Swim England, with the exception of the Commonwealth Games
This selection policy intends to provide clarity regarding the process of selection, along with the performance factors that athletes will be considered against. The illustration below outlines the structure within the Swim England Swimming Programme.
To read the full selection policy for the 2025-2026 season, please see below
