AS James Guy gets set to give his all for Team England in the Commonwealth Games, the swimming star acknowledges that the grit which manifested as a Warrington youngster continues to drive him today.
The work ethic that helped him achieve a galaxy of titles ahead of being crowned Warrington Under 11 Junior Sports Personality of the Year in 2007 underlined his successes at every major international event he has contested since, all capped by his 200m freestyle world title in 2015 and two more shiny gold medals in relay events at the Tokyo Olympics last year.
The 26-year-old, a former pupil of Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School and Cardinal Newman High School, looks back fondly on the time he was moulded and shaped into a pool warrior of the highest order and he is now focused on doing the country proud in Birmingham where he will contest the 100m and 200m fly plus relays.
When Guy lived in Stockton Heath, he raced at Trafford Metros Swimming Club having previously lived nearby in Altrincham and he is grateful for what he was taught by his coach Mike Roberts.
“Swimming’s a hard sport and one thing he engrained in me was the work ethic you need to have is second to none,” said Guy, who achieved a personal best time en route to reaching the final of the 200m fly at the FINA World Championships in Bucharest five weeks ago.
“If you’re not going to be honest in training, you’re not going to get anywhere or get the results you want to have when you’re racing.
“And that’s one thing I’ve always carried with me. If you want to be a great swimmer, you have to be a great trainer - doing things you’re asked to do all the time, day in day out.
“Having three good sessions out of nine in a week is not good enough. It should be eight or nine all the time. Obviously that’s quite hard to do but otherwise you’re not going to get the results you want to get.
“And I think one of the things I learned from that period years and years ago is carrying that and being consistent with that all the time.
“That’s why I think I swam so well in Tokyo. That Olympic year, you kind of go on a journey and it’s about enjoying the training, enjoying the daily life of just working hard, and the results always come.
“Thinking myself back to that 11-year-old boy in Warrington, it was just about being a grafter all the time. It was the same sessions every week for two to three years, it never changed. So that was the hard days and hard work of being with Mike.
“Fast forward it 15 years going into the Olympics and it was easy to work hard because I’ve done it for so many years. And that grit inside of me has never left me and was instilled into me at a young age.”
Guy, who now swims for Team Bath, added: “I do look back on those days with fondness. We used to get up at 4.10am three or four times a week. I was only around 10, 11, 12, and mum and dad would drive me to the pool or dad would drive me to the pool, but we went in and blasted every session with what we were supposed to do.
“Those memories will always be there forever, including the house we lived in. I actually went back there between Covid and just drove round and said hello to the neighbour.
“It’s weird how time moves forward. And I can’t believe it’s 12 months since Tokyo, the year has flown by, but I always look back at the memories of what we used to do when we lived in Warrington.
“It was a really good period of my life where it kind of instilled a lot of good things into me and hopefully I’ll teach my kids as well one day.”
He says winning those gold medals in Tokyo have not changed too much for him.
He still has goals he wants to achieve, but also if he was to pack it all in tomorrow he could look back on a glittering career.
Guy has taken something on board since last summer’s Olympics though which could be key in what will be his third Commonwealth Games.
“I have realised that as you get older you have to kind of put things as a priority,” he said.
“I think with what I’m doing now and the way I conduct myself around the pool and with training, it’s about doing things at the right time.
“It’s about doing it at the major meet when it counts and you’re trying to win medals.
“And that’s one thing I’ve really learned. Across in Tokyo, you could have been the fastest guy all year but if you didn’t perform at the right time then you were not going to do anything.
“That’s the way I think about things now, long term.”
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