Amelie Blocksidge: The swimming sensation clocking faster times than Olympic icon

ITV Granada Reports sports correspondent Mike Hall chats to Amelie Blocksidge.


She is the teenager tipped for great things at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

In truth, Amelie Blocksidge could easily have been a global star already.

The 15-year-old failed to make the qualifying mark for the British team for this summer's Paris Olympics, yet had she gone she would have made the 1,500m freestyle final.

It was a tough knock, but she shrugs it off and looks to the future.

Amelie Blocksidge in action in the pool. Credit: Press Association

"I won the Olympic trials but the qualifying time was a tough time," she said. "I was under that time so didn't go. I think I would've had good potential had I gone.

"It would have brought out the best of me. But it's made me hungrier for more.

"Considering I missed out on Paris, I really want to go to LA and kind of make a name for myself. Obviously I'll still be quite young. Then I think I'll be like 19. So if I go there and do well, that's just all I want really."

Amelie is already being talked about in the same sentence as American swimming legend Katie Ledecky.

"Right now, my personal best is faster than Katie Ledecky's when she was 15, so that puts me on a good track," says Amelie.

"She's pretty inspirational because obviously, I think she won the Olympics when she was my age and she's made history and she's probably an inspiration to many other distance swimmers and hopefully some day in the future I can be like her."

Katie Ledecky at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Press Association

If she can achieve a fraction of Ledecky's success Amelie will become a British sporting superstar - Ledecky has won nine Olympic gold medals to date.

It's not impossible that the pair could go head-to-head in LA.

"Well, I hope I could do that, because obviously I'm always better in a race. So if I'm chasing after her and I know she's the best, I'm going to want to be the best. So if I can chase after her, then I'd just love to race her, like in real life," said Amelie.

Amelie's commitment to her sport is extraordinary for a 15-year-old.

She trains four mornings a week at 5.15am plus another four evening sessions. Around all of that she manages to fit in her school work.

It's clearly paying dividends as she is a multiple European junior champion but now she is ready for a shot in senior competitions.

Amelie Blocksidge celebrates after another winning performance. Credit: Press Association

Coach John Stout, from City of Salford Swimming Club, is quietly confident Amelie will fulfil her potential.

"I've not got a crystal ball," he said. "All we can do is just keep working hard.

Those people who win Olympic medals, they can do incredible things, particularly in the training environment. Extraordinary.

Over the past two years when I've been coaching her, Amelie has done extraordinary things in training, and that gives me great hope and expectation that I would like to see her - if all goes well - at an Olympic games."

While it's four years to go to the next Olympics, Amelie has plenty in her sights before then including the World Championships in Singapore next summer where maybe, just maybe, she will meet her hero in the pool.


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