Clegg has 'unfinished business' after Paris selection

Clegg has been part of the GB Para-swimming set-up since 2016

Swimmer Stephen Clegg believes he has unfinished business after being selected on the British team for his third Paralympics in Paris later this summer.

Clegg, who won a silver and two bronzes in the pool in Tokyo in 2021, is one of the most experienced members named in a 26-strong squad as he chases a first Paralympic gold medal.

Also included are Tokyo champions Maisie Summers-Newton and Tully Kearney plus Alice Tai, who won relay gold in Rio in 2016 but missed Tokyo through injury.

Fifteen of the squad will be making their Paralympic debut including twin sisters Eliza and Scarlett Humphrey and 13-year-old Iona Winnifrith, who is set to be the youngest British competitor in Paris.

The squad is the first to be named for the ParalympicsGB team for the Games, which run from 28 August to 8 September.

Clegg, 28, who has a visual impairment, is the third member of his family to have represented GB at a Paralympics with elder sister Libby winning two golds and three silvers as an athlete across three Games and brother James claiming bronze in the pool at 2012.

"Any opportunity to represent your country is a privilege," he tells BBC Sport. "I never thought when I started competing I would end up being one of the most experienced members of the team. It is a weird change of the guard.

"Going into Tokyo I had said it would be my last Games and it had an extreme amount of pressure – a lot of it internal.

"I had an expectation on myself to win and I thought anything short of that was a failure, both in terms of swimming and my personal development and it led to a very stressful time.

"As soon as I touched the wall in Tokyo in my butterfly final and I was second, I knew I had to stick around for another three years to win that gold medal."

Clegg took time off to re-evaluate, trying out other sports which helped him rediscover his love for swimming.

Clegg missed out on gold in Tokyo by 0.06 seconds

"There is still pressure but I don’t have that overwhelming anxiety and stress that I had going to Tokyo and the unfinished business is more of a driver for me," he adds.

"I have more love for swimming now than I have had at any point in my career which is a nice place to be at 28."

Clegg, who is based at the University of Edinburgh, will compete in three events in Paris – the S12 100m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly - having won gold in the backstroke and silver in the other two events at last year’s Worlds in Manchester.

"My top target is three golds but it is a competitive field and it is hard to sit there with certainty and say that, but I am confident we are going to be in a good position," he says.

"I’m thankful to be in position where I could hopefully get multiple golds but to get on the podium three times would be a remarkable achievement.

"But everything is in a good place. Training has been good all season and my body and head are in a good place. I want to hopefully go and deliver some special performances."

The squad announcement comes with 100 days to go to the start of the Games and the ParalympicsGB chef de mission Penny Briscoe says it is a big moment.

"This is the start of the building of the team and is a huge morale boost that it is finally kicking off and we can start to see who will be in Paris," she tells BBC Sport.

"We haven’t usually had to wait this long for the first team members to be announced so the sense of excitement has been building.

"Swimming has a rich history of delivering success at Games and major championships and we have a mix of those with experience alongside some hugely exciting new talent."

GB Para-swimming squad: Tully Kearney, Alice Tai, Poppy Maskill, Stephen Clegg, Brock Whiston, Ellie Challis, Maisie Summers-Newton, Grace Harvey, Suzanna Hext, Rebecca Redfern, Faye Rogers, Olivia Newman-Baronius, Scarlett Humphrey, Iona Winnifrith, William Ellard, Callie-Ann Warrington, Louise Fiddes, Megan Neave, Rhys Darbey, Mark Tompsett, Cameron Vearncombe, Eliza Humphrey, Toni Shaw, Bruce Dee, Harry Stewart, Louis Lawlor.