Angharad Evans Talks Paris Olympics, World Silverware & Hitting Her Stride In 2025
In the first of two articles, Angharad Evans talks to Swimming World about Paris 2024, World Championship silver and her fine form in 2025
Angharad Evans has hit the ground running as she continues the form that guided her to an Olympic final, World Championship silverware and British records last year.
The University of Stirling swimmer won the breaststroke treble at the recent BUCS Championships, getting her campaign underway with a 30.98 win in the 50.
She followed that up with 1:06.02 in the 100, the fifth-fastest performance in the all-time national rankings topped by her 1:05.54 British record and a time only she has bettered among domestic swimmers.
Evans brought her individual programme to a close with a 2:22.64 victory over 200m as she sliced almost three seconds off her PB to elevate herself to fifth-fastest British performer.
Angharad Evans: Photo Courtesy: Aquatics GB
She returned to the pool for the final time in the women’s medley relay where she posted the fastest breaststroke split in British history of 1:05.14 as Stirling won the title.
While her 200 exceeded any expectations – “a three-second PB was not on my radar” – Evans had mixed feelings about her performance in the 100m.
The 21-year-old struggles with nerves before the two-length race, getting butterflies and over-thinking “small things.”
She’s worked on managing them and using them to her advantage and in Sheffield Evans also turned to Ben Higson, who was appointed Stirling head coach after Steve Tigg took up the role of Aquatics GB head coach.
“One thing about me is that I get so nervous for that because it’s my main event and the 200 I can just let loose a little and play with my tactics going into the race,” she told Swimming World.
“I wasn’t fully happy with the 100 in the final, I just feel like there was more work to be done, more things I could’ve changed so that set me up for the 200 and I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I just wanted to put in the best race I can in February leading into trials.”
With achievement comes increased self-expectation with the World Championships in Singapore a little over five months away should the British trials in April be safely navigated.
There have been three World Championships in as many years – including one in the February of Olympic year – with high 1:05s/low 1:06s enough to secure a 100 medal and times ranging from 2:21.63 to 2:23.20 sufficient for bronze in the longer race.
Evans is already well within that realm and has her sights set on another big drop in the 200.
“Even now that I’ve just swum a 2:22 I’m thinking how do I go sub-2:20? And that’s just the mindset that you have to have, you have to adapt and keep pushing forward as your performance gets better.
“I don’t want to be stuck on 1:06s for 100 breaststroke – how can I get to 1:05s low? How can I get to 1:04s from a relay takeover?
“And it’s just focusing on all the small details like your angle when you dive in, your head when you turn, it’s getting to that point where you have to focus on all the small things that in the bigger picture is where the three-second time drops come from.”
Paris 2024 & ‘Staying Proud But Never Satisfied’
Evans claimed her first British crown at the national championships in April 2024 and although her winning time was outside the cut, she was selected as a discretionary pick for Paris.
She swam her way into the British record books the following months when she rocketed to 1:05.54 in the 100m breaststroke at the AP Race International in London.
With that, she sliced 0.67 from the previous standard of 1:06.21 that had stood to Molly Renshaw since the European Championships in 2021 as she lowered her PB by 0.71secs.
She followed that up with another journey inside 1:06 at the Sette Colli in Rome for second in 1:05.91 as Benedetta Pilato set an Italian record of 1:05.44.
Evans arrived in Paris little more than a month later as she prepared to make her senior international debut in the cauldron of La Défense Arena.
Steven Tigg: Photo Courtesy: Ian MacNicol, Scottish Swimming
While there was excitement at sharing a call room with the likes of Lilly King and Ruta Meilutyte – the 2016 and 2012 Olympic 100br champions – Evans credits Stirling coaches Brad Hay and Steve Tigg with helping her block out the noise.
“Brad would check in but I also built a relationship with Steve that part of the season as well because I went to Sette Colli with him,” she said. “That’s when I’d open up with the coaches and say I’m quite anxious for this race and then we’d talk through the season that I’d had – you’ve made it this far, it’s not a coincidence that you’re here.
“I trusted the training that I did – it was a very hard block of training – and I think that’s what mentally helped me. I knew I’d put everything into the training, everything out of the pool – nutrition, sleep, I did everything I could to set myself up for this debut swim internationally that I could.”
Evans progressed 12th through the prelims before 1:05.99 in the semis placed her sixth into the final as the likes of Meilutyte and world silver medallist Tes Schouten missed out.
Tang Qianting was well clear at halfway in 29.94 followed by Mona McSharry (30.56) with Evans third in 30.61 as 0.13 separated second to fifth.
Tatjana Smith came through on the second 50 to upgrade Tokyo silver to Paris gold with the South African followed home by Tang (1:05.54) and McSharry who claimed bronze in 1:05.59.
Evans was sixth in 1:05.85, a fine outcome on her Games debut but one that was tinged with some disappointment in the months following Paris given she was just 0.26 off a medal.
While recognising what she accomplished in the French capital, Evans has used it as motivation.
“I definitely look at it as an achievement but I think every swimmer has such a critical mindset and you’re always going to be like – what if I did this differently? What if I did that?
“But that same mindset is what’s keeping me hungry now, I want more, I want international medals, I want to not come sixth in the final.
“I appreciate it and one quote that I stand by is ‘Stay proud but never satisfied’ and that is how I look at that swim at the Olympics.”
Silverware & Records In Budapest
Evans travelled to Budapest for the short-course worlds in December where she soon tore into the British record books once again.
First up at the Duna Arena was the 100m breaststroke where she headed the prelims in 1:03.45 to cut almost a second from Renshaw’s national mark of 1:04.37 from December 2021.
Evans went on to finish seventh in the final (1:04.08) as well as eighth over 200 (2:18.77) and 12th in the 50 (29.95).
l-r: Abbie Wood, Angharad Evans, Eva Okaro & Freya Anderson: Photo Courtesy: Aquatics GB
She joined forces with Abbie Wood, Eva Okaro and Freya Anderson for the women’s medley relay as the quartet went 3:50.20 for a national record and fourth place in prelims.
Come the final and the quartet were led off by double IM bronze medallist Wood in 57.44 with Evans splitting 1:03.18 to hand over in third to Eva Okaro, who’d set a world junior 50 free record of 23.66 less than 90 minutes earlier.
Okaro split 56.11 before a thundering 51.11 anchor leg by Anderson propelled the Great Britain team past China and into silver medal position in 3:47.84 for another national record as the USA set a WR of 3:40.41 for gold.
“It was such a special moment,” said Evans. “Us four girls have very different backgrounds. We have Eva – the world junior record holder from earlier that night – we have Abbie, a double Olympian.
“There was just such a mixture of talent and we weren’t going into it with any expectations.
“Abbie isn’t a backstroker, Eva doesn’t usually swim the 100 fly so we were like let’s just have fun with it and see where it gets us.
“We performed the best that we possibly could: no-one was going to beat America and that was facts on paper. So, in our eyes we won!”
