Paris 2024: Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe on Olympic chances in artistic swimming - 'A really hard sport'
/dnl.eurosport.com/sd/img/placeholder/eurosport_logo_1x1.png){kind=logo}
Published 17/06/2024 at 18:37 GMT
Britain's Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe are heading to their second Olympic Games with much higher hopes than at Tokyo 2020. The pair will be medal favourites going into the artistic swimming competition at Paris 2024, having clinched a silver and a bronze at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships. Shortman and Thorpe discussed their chances in their "really hard sport".
Exclusive: 'It’s time’ – Bach excited as Olympics prepare to return to Paris after 100 years
Two Team GB athletes marked their Olympic selection by swimming in the most unlikely of settings: the tropical reef tank at the Sea Life London Aquarium.
Artistic swimmers Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe, both 23, are hoping to win Team GB's first medal in the sport at Paris 2024.
"It's definitely the most rogue place I've ever swam," admitted Shortman.
Shortman and Thorpe dived in with a range of species, including batfish and unicorn fish.
They made friends with turtles 'Boris' and 'Dougie', named after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and McFly bass guitarist respectively.
Also in the mix were 'Zebby' the zebra shark and 'Football' the puffer fish, making for a unique experience for the two-time Olympic athletes.
"I'm not a massive fan of the sea so it was actually quite scary for me," said Thorpe. "It was kind of terrifying at first. I'm not sure I'll be volunteering again."
Shortman added: "It was really fun and a once-in-a-lifetime experience. How many people get to swim at an aquarium?"
Few Olympic sports are as gruelling as theirs. Shortman and Thorpe train for 40 hours a week at Bristol South Swimming Pool, working from 8am to 6pm and then staying on for video analysis to correct their mistakes for the next day.
They train in gymnastics, practise yoga and spend minutes at a time submerged: Shortman can hold her breath underwater for three minutes.
"I can't stress how hard the sport is," said Shortman. "Because it's so glamorous, we've got our costumes on, it's a distraction from the fact that this is a really, really hard sport."
Thorpe added: "We're supposed to be smiling so you can't see the pain. The smile is fake."
The bubbly Bristolians have fuelled hopes for the Games with a string of superb performances in recent years.
Shortman won Britain's first medal at the World Championships with solo bronze in 2023 and the dynamic duo clinched silver and bronze at February's Worlds to qualify for the Olympics. In May, they won a test event at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Paris.
There are plenty of reasons for the rapid rise: a welcome injection of National Lottery funding, a pioneering new coach in Yumiko Tomomatsu, refreshed mentalities and judging changes that bend in their favour.
"Is the ambition to win gold? Absolutely," said Shortman. "I think before Olympic gold almost seemed unattainable. It was more of a dream than a goal."
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement