Tom Dean will be looking to back up impressive recent showings at the British Championships when he lines up at the LEN European Short Course Swimming Championships.
He won silver in the 200m individual medley and bronze in the 200m freestyle earlier this year at Tollcross, fuelling hope he can shine at December’s continental gathering.
And it was also in Glasgow that Dean won his first senior international medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay at the European Championships in 2018.
Alongside world champion Duncan Scott, who leads the British team in Scotland, the Great British line-up produced a championship record in the final to storm home and win gold.
He finished ninth in the 200m individual medley at those games, missing out on a place in the final by just 0.08 seconds.
While Dean may still be relatively inexperienced at senior international level, he started swimming competitively at eight years old and enjoyed a stellar junior career.
This included gold at the European Junior Championships in the 200m individual medley and silver in the 400m in 2017.
He went one better the following year in Helsinki, where he broke the European junior record in the process of defending his 200m title and added two bronze medals to his tally in the 400m individual medley and the 4x200m freestyle.
Dean won his first senior British titles in 2018 with gold in both the 200m and 400m individual medley aged just 17.
It was a particularly busy schedule for Dean, his successes at junior level coming just a few weeks before his relay gold in the European Championships.
“It was tough coming back from European Juniors and back into training straight away,” he said at the time.
“Just to be selected for the Europeans and make the final was a huge honour, let alone win a medal, so I was delighted.”
He competed at his first World Championships earlier this year, qualifying for the semi-finals in the 200m individual medley and finishing 11th overall, and will be looking to make a real impact at these Short Course Championships.
Social Handles
Twitter – @tomdean00
Instagram – tomdean00
Short course personal bests
100m Freestyle – 48.30 (2018)
200m Freestyle – 1:44.16 (2018)
200m Backstroke – 2:13.03 (2018)
200m Individual Medley – 1:55.73 (2018)
Fun Fact – Dean is currently studying for a degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath.