LONG DISTANCE swimmer Alice Dearing’s Olympic dream is very much alive. A ticket to Tokyo 2020 is all but confirmed for the Loughborough University student, with her fourth-placed finish in the recent Setubal earning TeamGB a quota spot in the Women’s 10km Marathon Swimming event.

The task at hand for Dearing was to finish in the top nine and be the first British athlete across the line in at FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier – an achievement in which she duly delivered.

Speaking after the event, Dearing said: “I’m really excited, relieved, grateful, it’s a huge mix of emotions. I can’t quite believe it, I’ve been daydreaming about this day for the past year and a half, ever since the first lockdown came in. 

“So to have the day arrive, have everything fall into place, thankfully, have such a great team around supporting me, to get in, swim to my potential and qualify the Olympic Games place is just a bit surreal right now, I can’t quite process it. It’ll probably take me quite a while to sleep tonight!

“I’m just so grateful to everybody who has helped me along the way, everyone who has believed me, encouraged me. When I was younger, I never really thought about being an Olympian – I thought ‘oh wow, it would be so cool’, but I knew how much hard work went into it and honestly didn’t think I was cut out for it.

“So I’m really proud to have proved myself wrong, in a way, and to achieve beyond my wildest dreams.

“I was happy to make nationals, I was happy to make regionals, I was happy to make counties – and to be put up for selection for the Olympics, it’s an incredible achievement and I’m so relieved and grateful and happy for everything I’ve invested.”

Dearing is a key member of the Black Swimming Association (BSA) which earlier this year announced plans to undertake a pioneering research project aimed to tackle inequalities and barriers that preclude African, Caribbean and Asian communities from participating in aquatics.