Freya Anderson Absent From Women’s 200 Free Heats At 2024 British Trials

2024 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (OLYMPIC TRIALS)

• Tuesday, April 2nd – Sunday, April 7th
• Prelims at 10am local (5am ET), Finals at 7pm local (2pm ET)
• London Aquatics Centre
• LCM (50m)
• British Swimming Olympic Selection Policy
• Meet Central
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries
• Live Results
• Livestream: Channel 4 Sport

Late last month Olympic medalist Freya Anderson said it would be ‘unlikely’ she would race at the 2024 British Swimming Championships.

Indeed on day one, the 23-year-old was absent from the start lists for the women’s 200m freestyle.

We reported how Anderson’s social media on March 26th read, “At the start of this year, after repetitive bouts of illness, I was diagnosed with glandular fever, which meant I had to pull back from training and our team camp in Australia.

“This was not how I envisioned the start of the Olympic year, but I had to listen to my body and put my health and recovery first, something I’ve found extremely hard to do throughout my career.”

Anderson, who trains at Bath under Dave McNulty, was originally entered as the top-seeded swimmer in both the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle events. She owns lifetime bests of 53.31 and 1:55.85, respectively.

At the 2020 Olympic Games, Anderson placed 11th in the 100m free (53.53) and 12th in the 200m free (1:57.10). She helped the British women finish 5th in the 4x100m free relay.

Among her international hardware earned since then, Anderson collected 6 medals at the 2022 European Championships, including gold in the mixed 4x20m free relay and women’s 4x100m free relay.

Anderson’s absence in London doesn’t mean she’s officially out of Olympic contention. As has been the standard in the past, the British Selection Policy states that the Head Coach and High-Performance Director can discretionarily pick athletes for the roster.

Taking the top seed in the women’s 200m free was fellow Olympian Abbie Wood of Loughborough. Wood notched 1:58.49 as one of four swimmers under the 2:00 barrier this morning.

Joining Wood was Stirling’s Lucy Hope (1:58.98) and Loughborough teammates Freya Colbert (1:59.61) and Medi Harris (1:59.98).