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Rio call for Loughborough College swimmer Lianna Swan

Posted: 1st July 2016 - 7:53am

Loughborough College swimmer Lianna Swan has booked her place on the plane to Rio to compete in this summer’s Olympic Games.

The 18 year old, who is studying for a BSc in Sport Science and Management at Loughborough College, swam for Pakistan both in the 2014 Commonwealth Games and at this year’s South Asian Games in India, where she won gold in the women’s 200m breaststroke, silver in the women’s 100m breaststroke and a further silver as well as two bronze in the women’s relay finals.

Lianna, who holds seven national records, is following in the footsteps of both her Pakistani mum and British dad by studying for her degree in Loughborough, and is thrilled to be heading to Brazil to represent Pakistan once again.

“It was a strong possibility that I could be going to Rio for a while, but the final confirmation had to come from the International Swimming Federation FINA, to the Pakistan swimming federation.

“Finding out that I was going to the Olympics was quite overwhelming.

“Although I had known that I could potentially be going, finally hearing it certainly made the whole thing a lot more real and exciting.”

Now Lianna is concentrating on time in the pool. “After finishing my first year at Loughborough College, I have now been able to go back to focusing purely on training.

“I'm swimming the 50m Freestyle, so my training is mainly focused on speed and power at the moment. I'm working with the same coach as I did before competing in the South Asian Games in February.

“My mum, dad and older brother Matthew will all be there in Rio with me, and we'll all fly out at the beginning of August.

“ I've never been to Brazil so I'm looking forward to visiting some of the famous landmarks in Rio.

“Although I'm exceedingly nervous about the whole thing, I know that I'll love being in the Olympic village surrounded by such talented people.”