Commonwealth Games: Plymouth Leander provide 12 swimmers

Plymouth Leander swimmer Ben Proud won two gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games

Think of international sporting centres of excellence and you might imagine them based in major cities like London, New York or Tokyo.

How about adding Plymouth to that list? The city is home to 12 swimmers from six different nations competing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games - and they all belong to one club.

Having already produced two world champions and an Olympic gold medallist, BBC Sport take a closer look at why Plymouth Leander are so successful.

World-class facilities

There is no secret to the fact that if you have really good facilities you will have a better chance of success.

After Plymouth's Life Centre opened in early 2012, with its 50m pool and Olympic-standard diving facilities, the medals followed.

Just a mile away is Plymouth College, an independent school with a history of sporting success and a partnership that is attractive to swimmers from around the world.

"We don't really have that much back home," Antigua swimmer Stefano Mitchell told BBC Sport.

The 18-year-old will compete in six events on Australia's Gold Coast and balances sport with his A-Level studies as a boarder at Plymouth College.

"To be able to leave home and come here to get better at something I love is very good," he said.

Having competed in the 50m butterfly at last year's World Championships, he has since changed his focus after moving to Devon.

"I was considered a sprinter before I moved here, so it was all 50s and sometimes 100s, but now I'm gradually moving into 200m events," Mitchell added.

"Just a few weeks ago I did the 200m freestyle and I dropped 10 seconds off my personal best."

Olympic and world champions

Tom Daley, Ben Proud, Henry Slade and Ruta Meilutyte have all been students at Plymouth College

The swimmers who are still students at Plymouth College do not have to look far for inspiration.

Former Olympic and world breaststroke champion Ruta Meilutyte, current world 50m butterfly champion Ben Proud and world diving champion Tom Daley all studied at the school, as well as England rugby union player Henry Slade.

"Success breeds success," says Plymouth College's director of sport Phil Mutlow.

"There are a lot of high-performance athletes, but if you look around you and you look at high-performing people, not just in sport, but maybe music, drama or academics, that drives the culture of success and aspiring to be successful.

"Also we've got a balance that a lot of other schools or clubs struggle to meet. That balance between somewhere to live and somewhere that understands your training commitments, and a school that's prepared to be flexible.

"We have experience of working with elite athletes in diving, swimming, pentathlon, rugby, cricket and all sorts of other sports.

"We understand those athletes as well as lots of other schools, or better than a huge number of schools, and that works in our favour."

'It's just the weather that makes me miss home'

Katie Kyle learned how to swim in the Caribbean waters surrounding St Lucia

So how hard is it to up sticks from your homeland and come to a city you have probably never heard of before?

Erico Cuna, 17, moved to Plymouth from Mozambique, while 15-year-old Katie Kyle is hoping to be a star in the pool for her home island of St Lucia.

"The weather isn't that bad. I knew when I came to England I was going to be expecting rain and stuff," says Cuna, who will swim the 50m and 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly on the Gold Coast before turning his attention to the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires.

"The culture was the most different part. The way people are, the types of food that's eaten, it's a lot different to how it works back home."

"England is like my second home," says Kyle, a tall butterfly swimmer who is preparing for her first senior international meeting at next month's Games.

"I did live here for a few years when I was a baby, and we used to come on holiday here every year, so I do have some family here but none in Plymouth.

"It's just the weather really that makes me miss home."

The 'brotherhood' of swimming

Issa Mohamed won two heats at the last Commonwealth Games but failed to qualify for the semi-finals

At 23, Issa Mohamed is one of the oldest in the Plymouth squad.

The Kenyan sprinter has been in the city since the end of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and made the top 50 in the 50m butterfly at last summer's World Championships.

"Not only do you swim faster knowing that there are people from other countries who swim faster than you, but also it promotes brotherhood and swimming is all about friendships and brotherhood," the Mombasa native said.

"You won't be swimming forever and you need them, the friends and the people you interact with, at some point after swimming."

That brotherhood is in abundance at the side of the pool in Plymouth.

Their three England swimmers, Thomas Fannon, Laura Stephens and Jessica Jackson, are all ex-Plymouth College students and represent Leander's best chance of a medal - along with Proud, who still swims under the club's banner despite training overseas.

"You definitely become a very close-knit team," says Colchester-born Stephens, who will swim the 100 and 200m butterfly and the medley relay for England.

"We all support each other. Everyone has their good days and bad days, but we all manage to get through it together and it's a very special environment.

"The whole system produces these all-round athletes. It's your whole lifestyle that's committed to the sport, all the way from 13 years old. Now we're at university and we're still here."

Frenchman at the helm

Robin Armayan will be watching his swimmers from back in Plymouth during the Commonwealth Games

The man in charge of keeping the show on the water is not from Plymouth.

Frenchman Robin Armayan took over the top job at Leander last year after former head coach Jon Rudd left to become Ireland's performance director.

He is no stranger to the system, having been a coach with Plymouth College since 2014, and has helped coach the Great Britain team at the World Junior Championships.

"This partnership between Plymouth Leander Swimming Club and Plymouth College is a unique package," he said.

"It does allow us to have a lot more staff involved and offer services that a simple swimming club would not be able to offer.

"In addition to that we have two universities so when the swimmers join Plymouth College they know they can be with us for a very long time.

"It just creates a unique environment and that's what attracts swimmers from all over the world."

While many of the club's swimmers will be competing late at night, UK time, Mutlow says he and his colleagues will definitely be tuning in.

"The sense of pride that there will be around this place, just with people having said 'I played a really small part in that journey' of getting to their dream of competing at the Commonwealth Games, will be immense," he added.

"Everyone here will be so proud of every single one of them, regardless of how well they do, because we've been a part of the journey of getting them into the pool."