Three-Time Olympic Relay Champion James Guy Crowned Aquatics GB Champion Athlete For 2025
Three-time Olympic relay champion James Guy was crowned Champion Athlete for 2025 at the Aquatics GB Awards on Saturday night.
Since making his senior global bow at the 2013 World Championships in Barcelona, Guy has been an integral part of the British team, collecting Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth titles.
James Guy: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
He made his first trip to the senior international podium at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where he won bronze in the 400 free behind Ryan Cochrane and David McKeon and and swam the heats of the medley relay to earn gold with the England quartet who went on to win the title.
The following year he became the first British man to win a world freestyle title in the long-course pool when he came past Sun Yang and Ryan Lochte down the final 50 to take the 200 title in Kazan, Russia.
The then 19-year-old also anchored the 4×2 relay to victory – replacing a certain Duncan Scott in the process – and took silver in the 400 free.
Kazan 2015 represented the start of a band of brothers with Guy joining the likes of Scott and Adam Peaty on the Olympic and world podium ever since.
Since Kazan, Guy has won three golds among six Olympic medals and a further four world titles among eight more honours. The latest came at the 2025 worlds in Singapore where he joined Scott, Matt Richards and Jack McMillan as the quartet added the title to their Olympic crown. Tom Dean and Evan Jones also played their parts as prelims swimmers. Guy also reached the final of the individual event where he finished seventh.
Now Guy has been recognised with the Maurice Watkins Champion Athlete Award which is a testament to his continued legacy and he joins the likes of Peaty, Dean, Poppy Maskill, Maisie Summers-Newton, Alice Tai, Tom Daley and Jack Laugher.
While unable to be present at the celebration event in Newport, Guy was handed the trophy by his wife, Courtney, after a training session earlier in the week at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
“I just want to say a thank you again for the Maurice Watkins Award, it’s a real honour to win this year among the amazing athletes out there that will be celebrated this evening,” said Guy over videolink. “This is my first time winning an Aquatics GB award – it’s a lovely acknowledgment and a credit to all the hard work of the team around me.”
l-r: Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan & Duncan Scott, Singapore 2025: Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
McMillan, Dean and Jones earlier took to the stage to accept the Swimming Athlete of the Year on behalf of the full Singapore 2025 4x200m freestyle ensemble.
“I think it’s really important we’ve got this heritage for the four by two. The experience is massive – I remember my first team years ago in Glasgow looking up to the likes of Calum Jarvis, Duncan [Scott] and Jimmy [Guy],” said Dean. “I’ve no doubt Evan along with plenty of other freestyler in the country are going to get loads of that experience in the future and hopefully many more medals because our relay is a force to be reckoned with at the moment and it’s great to be a part of it.”
Guy’s coach at Manchester Performance Centre Ryan Livingstone was named Swimming Coach of the Year alongside Ben Higson of Stirling.
Read more about James Guy in 2025
- Ten Years On, James Guy Recalls Kazan History That Ushered In A Band Of Brothers
- James Guy Gets 200 Free Berth At World Championships
- James Guy & Duncan Scott Share 200 Free Title At British Championships
Filip Nowacki marked his first senior GB call-up with selection for the short-course Europeans next month in Poland by being named Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year. Nowacki has had a year of constant silverware. He won the 100/200 breaststroke double at the European Junior Championships with a continental junior mark of 2:08.32 in the latter while his 59.59 PB in the 100 comfortably bettered the British age group record previously held by a certain Adam Peaty. There was also silver in the 50. The Jersey swimmer followed that up with eight golds at the Island Games before he again completed the 100/200 double at the world juniors, going 2:07.32 in the longer race to go within 0.02 of Ross Murdoch’s British record of 2:07.30 from the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
There was also the return of the Contribution to Social Impact Award, with Freya Anderson and Hector Pardoe acknowledged in recognition for the positive difference they’re respectively making away from the elite performance arena; Hector for continued efforts in campaigning for clean water with his ‘Three Lakes Challenge’ and participation in swimming the entire length of the River Thames, and Freya for the empowering work she is delivering to young women through her FAST and Female project.
“I’m so happy for the recognition of our aim to keep young women in girls in sport for longer by empowering them and seeing their confidence grow on our FAST and Female swim clinics. I’m really grateful to receive this award,” said Anderson.
Aquatics GB Awards 2025 winners
James Guy – Maurice Watkins Champion Athlete
Poppy Maskill – Para-Swimming Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Everyone Active
Men’s 4x200m Freestyle relay team (Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan, Duncan Scott, Tom Dean and Evan Jones) – Swimming Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Speedo
Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen – Diving Athlete of the Year, sponsored by CSE
Ranjuo Tomblin – Artistic Swimming Athlete of the Year
Kathy Rogers – Water Polo Athlete of the Year
Patrick Miley – Para-Swimming Coach of the Year
Ben Higson and Ryan Livingstone – Swimming Coach of the Year, sponsored by Sport Passport
Tom Owens – Diving Coach of the Year
Paola Basso – Artistic Swimming Coach of the Year
Nick Hume – Water Polo Coach of the Year
Bruce Dee – Para-Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Gray Dawes
Filip Nowacki – Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year, sponsored by Sport Passport
Noah Penman – Diving Emerging Athlete of the Year
Freya Anderson and Hector Pardoe – Contribution to Social Impact