British swimmer James Guy goes back to school to train for Paris 2024

Stick or twist?

That's the quandary some athletes find themselves contemplating when form feels stagnant, and results just aren't coming, with an Olympic Games looming.

Should they change coaches or training facilities, even countries, to ensure they've turned every stone for the event for which they've been training their whole lives? Or stay put and hope they are on the right path?

And when?

Deciding to make a change at any time in the four-year Olympic cycle is tough, but with less than a year to go to an Olympic Games? That's quite the leap of faith, but one that British swimmer, James Guy took in September 2023. The Olympic Games Paris 2024 start on 26 July.

The five-time Olympic medallist, spoke to Olympics.com ahead of the 2024 British Swimming Championships and Olympic Trials starting on 2 April, about his decision to twist and move on from training at the British Swimming Performance Centre in Bath and back to his childhood school.

Not your average school, Millfield is renowned for its sporting excellence, with 12 Millfieldians including long jumper Jazmin Sawyers and rower Helen Glover, competing at Tokyo 2020.

Guy himself returned from Japan with three medals – gold in both the 4x200m free and 4x100m mixed medley, and silver in 4x100m medley. The freestyle and butterfly specialist also claimed silver medals in two relays at Rio 2016.

But the 28-year-old, who acknowledges he is edging toward the end of his career, wanted to go all in for Paris 2024, to see if he could repeat his individual success of 2015 when he won World gold in the 200m free.

"For me, I don't want to be remembered as just a relay swimmer," Guy explains via a video call, munching away on some food to refuel after a recently-finished training session. "Obviously I've played a massive part in the team's success, everyone knows I've been around for a long time, but also I was a world champion at 19. I am still really fast individually.

"One thing I talk to my coach about is just being at peace with everything," he says of his chats with Ryan Livingstone. "So, when you do finish your sport, even if I was a relay swimmer only and that's absolutely fine, but it's be happy with what you've got and be at peace with things. I want to know that I've turned over every stone completely, done every single thing right."

To do that, Guy felt he had to move on but didn't want to up sticks entirely. He has a life in Bath with his fiancé, friends, and family, so what to do?

Go back to school.

James Guy's school reunion

Millfield is in Somerset, an hour's drive from Guy's home in Bath, and it is where he studied from age 12 after accepting a swimming scholarship. Initially staying onsite at the mixed boarding school, his family moved to the area from Bury, near Manchester, so Guy could live back at home.

Four years later and he was selected for the World Junior Swimming Championships and by 17, was ranked fifth fastest in the world. By 19, he was double World Champion, winning gold in the 4x200m free, while also making history in the men's 200m free by becoming the first British male to win the event.

It is this quest for individual success, which also includes World bronze in butterfly in 2017, in addition to his nine relay World medals, that Guy is keen to tap back into by heading to Millfield, a decision made following a crisis of confidence prior to the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka.

While at a training camp in Reims, at Team GB swimming's holding camp for Paris 2024, and ahead of competing at the Foro Italico in Rome for pre-Worlds prep, Guy "literally couldn't swim".

"I was miles behind everybody else, and I didn't know what was wrong with me. I think it was just because the program was so intense, my body just couldn't handle it. I was all over the place, mentally wasn't in a good place, and it got to the point where if you're waking up at half two in the morning until half three, and you're thinking about moving programs, something's not quite right."

Despite winning gold in the 4x200m relay at the 2023 Worlds, his 10th-place finish in the 100 fly individually "wasn't where I wanted to be".

"I remember finishing racing and calling my girlfriend, just chatting away... and I just let loose, just devastated, and I thought, 'What's going on? I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but it's not working'."

Guy postponed any thoughts of making any change until after a season-ending holiday with his girlfriend, who became his fiancée during the time away.

But once the decision to change has been made, how does that take shape? What happens when you tell the national coach, and friend, you're moving? How awkward is it seeing your former training partners – some of whom you'll be competing alongside in the relay events – on the competition circuit?

• Olympic Games Paris 2024: Full schedule and day-by-day competitions

Making the change

"Me and Dave (McNulty) didn't really speak, we both were a bit upset, obviously, about what happened, but I had made the decision," says Guy of the point where he told his coach with whom he'd had so much success that he was leaving.

"Unfortunately, sport is not a forever thing. You've only got a short amount of time, and one thing that Dave taught me at Bath was Olympic year is about having no regrets. And for me, this is a choice I made, to have no regrets because at the end of the day, I'm not going to swim any slower because I physically can't."

Describing McNulty, who is also the head coach of GB's 4x200m relay team, as like another dad to him, Guy continues: "I think towards the end of the end of my time at Bath, it just came naturally that it changed to more like a friendship (than coach). And when I saw him at the (next) meet, we were talking the whole time, he was watching me race, he was cheering for me... there's nothing negative there, which is fantastic.

"He's great with Ryan, my new coach, there's no animosity. I don't like that, it's just not very nice to be around, so it's great that everything's buried and it's just treating everything like normal now which is fantastic."

Likewise, his friendships with his former training partners remain, despite initially being slightly strange as a number of them live on the same estate in Bath.

"Jacob's over there," says Guy pointing in the direction of where up-and-coming Whittle resides. "Freya Anderson and Holly Hibbott are over there. I still see them in town, and they also look after my dog, when we're away, which is nice. I still talk to Deano (Tom Dean) most days."

Further afield, best mate and multiple breaststroke world-record breaker Adam Peaty, who trains at Loughborough University, has also been going through some tough times of late, so Guy is not alone in that.

And Matt Richards, his teammate in the gold medal success in the 4x200m free in Tokyo, is one of his new training partners, having made the same leap, from Bath to Millfield, in 2022. A year later, and Richards was world champion in the 200 free, just ahead of former training partner at the national centre, Dean, who is aiming for an incredible five medals at Paris 2024.

• As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
• Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.

Success at Europeans has James Guy dreaming

So, how's the twist working out for Guy so far?

One particular result speaks for itself.

An emotional Guy came second to Richards in the 200 free at the 2023 European Short Course Championships in December, his first individual medal at a major international championship in any race since 2020, and in his favourite 200 free event since bronze in 2016 at the European Long Course Championships.

“To get a medal on the podium individually is amazing," a tearful Guy told the in-house reporter. "It's been a long time (since) it’s happened.

“Things happen in life sometimes; you just don’t give up. Swimming’s a real journey, there’s ups and downs, and I’ve had more downs than ups, but this is definitely an up. Keep going and the times will come, and the PBs (personal bests) will come.”

Reflecting on that moment weeks later, Guy smiles.

"Honestly, it was just kind of a massive relief, a weight off my shoulders, I suppose.

"The emotion just all came out just because I had wanted to do some fast (times) for so long and I finally get it, and know I deserve what I achieve... Actually doing it, is like, oh, what you are doing is really working."

So, should Guy qualify for the British team for what would be his third Olympic Games, he feels happier that he's on track for the individual result that he craves.

That's not to say he's not looking forward to competing alongside new teammates and old in the relays, too.

"I love being part of a team, and winning with your teammates I think is probably more fun than winning as an individual, but to prove to myself that I can still be fast on my own and I can still do it... that faith has come back and I'm hungry again."