TOKYO 2020 SUMMER OLYMPICS – OPEN WATER SWIMMING
- August 4-5, 2021
- Odaiba Marine Park, Tokyo, Japan
- SwimSwam Event Preview
- Results
The women’s and men’s 10k races at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games have concluded, with Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha winning the former and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock topping the podium in the latter.
Further down the line in the women’s race was Great Britain’s Alice Dearing making her Games debut as the first black Olympic swimmer to hail from her nation. You can read more about that here.
Here in Tokyo, Dearing placed 19th in the 10k race, which consisted of water temperatures in excess of 29 degrees Celsius (~84 degrees Fahrenheit) throughout the swim.
The Andi Manley-trained athlete said post-race, “I’m tired, I’m pretty broken. It was really hard, a really tough race. I’m better than that, I know that, so I’ll check over what went wrong and look forward to the next one next year.
“It’s bittersweet for me. It was incredible to race at the Olympics, but I’m really disappointed with the result, I know I can do better.
24-year-old Dearing already has eyes set on Paris 2024 after having notched this first Games appearance.
“I want to go to Paris and have a better race.
“It was just the pace of it,” she continued. “I wasn’t expecting it. I was constantly playing catch up for 2km, swimming at the same pace as the lead pack but not actually with them. That takes a lot out of you mentally and physically, not being in it with them. I’ve got a lot to learn, each race is a learning curve and I feel there’s a lot of experience to be gained from this. I feel I’ve got a lot to give within the sport.”
On her representing the first black British swimmer at an Olympics, Loughborough’s Dearing said, “I just want people to know that it’s open and available to you, regardless of your race or your background.
“If you don’t know how to swim, get in and learn to swim. If you want to go to the Olympics, go and give it your best shot, don’t let anybody tell you it can’t be you. Go and chase your dreams if that’s what you want to do.”