Olympic swimming 2021: Meet former York City Baths Club member, James Wilby, who will be competing in the 200m race

The 27-year-old Yorkshire swimmer will be competing in Heat 3 of the men’s 200m breaststroke race at 11:46am on July 27 - his fourth competition during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic swimming event.

How did he get here?

James started out as a member of the York City Baths Club before he went on to win medals and set personal records.

He had actually achieved his first personal best time in 2010 when he was just 16 years old at 2:32.64, then swam 2:26.60 to qualify for the National Youth Championships, for which he set a new personal best time of 2:24.89, making him the sixth fastest for the semi-finals.

During the semi-finals, his small but significantly improved time of 2:24.70 put him in ninth place, surpassing a then-unknown Adam Peaty. His time in the finals was the best he had ever achieved at 2:20.13.

Going for gold

His swimming talents prepared him for his future wins. At the 2014 Commonwealth Games, James competed in three breaststroke events, and he qualified for the final in the 200m.

He came in sixth place for the 200m at 2:11.53 and was placed seventh in the 100m in a time of 1:01.07.

During that same year, he was part of the English team that won a gold medal in the 4 x 100-metre medley relay event, where he swam in the heat, but not the final.

Other accolades

Over the next few years, he went on to win all three medals in various races.

For the 200m breaststroke event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games he won a gold medal, where he set a winning time of 2:08.05. He also won a silver in the 100m breaststroke with a personal best time of 59.43 seconds and a bronze in the 50m breaststroke.

He went on to win heat four in the 100m breaststroke at the 2018 European Aquatics Championships, qualifying second fastest for the final at 59.12 seconds. He won silver in the finals with a personal best time of 58.64 seconds and became the equal fourth fastest 100m breaststroker in history behind Brendan Rickard (58.58).

In the 2019 World Aquatics Championships, he won silver, making this the first medal he won in the World Championships. He went on to become the equal third fastest 100m breaststroke swimmer in history at a time of 58.46 which matched London Olympic gold medalist Cameron Van Der Bergh’s time, which was a world record at the time.

Where can I watch the race?

You can witness James swim for Team GB on BBC One, Eurosport and discovery+.

Stream every unmissable moment of Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 live on discovery+, The Streaming Home of the Olympics.