The British men’s national team, that was aging as it headed into the London Olympics, is getting hit hard by retirement in the post-Olympic year, with the latest to say goodbye being three-time Olympian Ross Davenport.
In his decade with the British National Team, he’s won medals in many levels of competition. That includes a gold medal at the 2003 World University Games in the 400 free relay, a World Championship silver in 2008 at the Short Course World Championships, and in 2006 a pair of Commonwealth gold medals: one in the 800 free relay and his big individual breakthrough in the 200 freestyle.
Though the individual successes are definitely there, the 28-year old Davenport has been a big part of the British Olympic relays as well. He has been a part of four different Olympic finals relays: the 800 in 2004, 2008, and 2012, and the 400 in 2008 in Beijing as well.
Davenport will retire as the second-best freestyler in British history and the fastest in English history, and sits just .01 ahead of British counterpart David Carry, who has recently also stepped out of the pool for good.
Also retiring from the British squad in the aftermath of the Olympics was freestyler Simon Burnett, the American college record holder in the same 200 free. Britain’s got some work to do to refill their relays in time for Rio, but a youth infusion on the swimming side, to match that which they’re seeing on the coaching side, is much-needed one-way-or-the-other.