Now, Alice Dearing is one of Great Britain’s top female swimmers – and is hoping to become the first ethnic minority woman to compete for Team GB at the Olympics.
Currently a student at Loughborough University, she started swimming at her local pool in Birmingham aged nine. Now she has her sights on representing Britain in the 400 & 800 metres freestyle at Tokyo 2020 – where she’s likely to be the only black swimmer on the team – a problem other nations don’t have