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• Tom Dean has no regrets about going public with Paris 2024 ambitions

  Tom Dean insists he has no regrets about making public the extent of his Paris 2024 ambitions despite a setback at this month’s British Championship that left his quest to claim five medals in the French capital hanging by a thread.

  The 23-year-old bullishly proclaimed his plan to seek to eclipse his long-term rival Duncan Scott as the most prolific British athlete at a single Games shortly after surging to prominence by winning double gold in Tokyo.

  But third-place finishes behind Scott and Matt Richards in both the 100 and 200 metre freestyle finals mean Dean is only certain to compete in one individual event – the 200m medley – plus two relays, unless either of his rivals choose to streamline their Paris hopes.

  Dean told the PA news agency: “When you put yourself out there it comes with the risk of being exposed and falling short, and it makes the feats of those incredible champions who make the claims and go out and back them up all the more impressive.

  “It was a conscious decision and a source of motivation. I had a long conversation with my coach and my agent and we decided it was something we wanted to do. It is very much still on – there is a lot of individual and relay potential in Paris – and it’s still at the forefront of my mind.”

  Dean is the first to admit there are parallels between his own decision to go public and Adam Peaty’s ‘Project 56’, in which he made plain his drive to smash the 57-second mark in the 100m breaststroke, and subsequently to go on to set a world record that could never be beaten.

  Like Dean, Peaty has endured a recent rollercoaster, picking up a relatively disappointing pair of bronze medals at the World Championships in Doha in February, although he bounced back by booking his berth in Paris with his fastest time since winning his second straight Olympic gold in Tokyo.

  “There’s not an ounce of arrogance or over-confidence about it,” said Dean. “It’s us going out and saying, we’re the only people who have won individual gold medals, we’ve won world and Commonwealth golds, and we have the belief that we can go and do it again.

  “It’s what puts the fire in your belly, it’s what gets you up in the morning and pushes you on. That’s how I’ve been feeling since I came home from Tokyo, which feels like two days ago. I want to go out and win as many medals as possible.”

  The notion of adversity is a strictly relative one for Dean, who overcame two bouts of Covid at the start of the delayed Tokyo Olympics year, which forced him to spend seven weeks away from training and left his hopes of even reaching the Japanese capital in serious doubt.

  The rest is history as Dean went on to become the first British swimmer to win two golds at the same Games in 113 years, his subsequent record-breaking medal haul at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games sealing his place in the spotlight and culminated in him being awarded an MBE by Princess Anne.

  For Dean, being pipped by two world-class rivals is an inevitable result of being part of one of the most competitive freestyle eras – and one of the most promising domestic relay squads – for many decades in the sport.

  “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough at the moment to put a positive spin on things, but I’ve always been able to do that and even if it still feels a little bit raw, there’s plenty of good things to focus on for France.

  “Adam is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the British field, while my events are the most competitive in the world. I’ve been on the podium with Duncan and Matt so many times and we are separated by just a few hundredths of a second.

  “Again, it’s how you deal with that level of competition that will define you. I think the fear of failure is something that could be positive or negative. It’s the spin that you put on it – if you use it to your benefit, that’s when you can become pretty unstoppable.”

• Paris 2024 promises to be an Olympic Games like no other

  Boats down the Seine, B-boys at the Place de la Concorde and the lure of cold, hard cash promise to make the Paris 2024 Olympics, which get underway in 100 days’ time in the French capital, a Games like none before.

  If traditionalists were already blanching at audacious plans to rip up over a century of opening ceremony traditions, let alone welcoming the sport of breaking into the Olympic fray, they will have been white-eyed with fury at the announcement that track and field stars will each pocket a USD50,000 bonus.

  After the relative sterility of a delayed and Covid-stricken Tokyo 2020, the French capital, as well as the individual sports on an ever-growing and potentially tenuous programme, is preparing to pull out all the stops.

  The Games will start on July 26 with the first opening ceremony to be staged outside a stadium, each national delegation instead sent bobbling 6km down the city’s major artery before disembarking in front of the Eiffel Tower.

  Two weeks later, windmills, freezers and top rocks will become an official part of the Olympic lexicon for the first time as breaking makes its debut, B-boys and B-girls going head-to-head in DJ-driven battles.

  If its inclusion is not quite as contentious as the appearance of live pigeon shooting on the programme for the first Paris Olympics in 1900, it has raised some questions about the IOC’s almost obsessional commitment towards attracting the attention of global youth.

  Breaking joins other recently established sports like skateboarding, surfing and BMXing in the so-called ‘urban’ section of a constantly evolving Olympic programme, and one for which it would appear a city like Paris is ideally suited.

  For Team GB, now led by the likes of 15-year-old Sky Brown, keen to build on her history-making skateboarding bronze in Tokyo, there is a sense of similar upheaval, as a generation of new stars emerge and begin to eclipse the established order.

  There will be no Laura Kenny to light up the Velodrome, while in contrast to their dominant pre-Tokyo preparations, question-marks hang over the ability of the likes of Adam Peaty and Max Whitlock to retain their respective titles.

  Nevertheless, Tom Dean, Keely Hodgkinson, Tom Daley, Beth Shriever and Emily Campbell will expect to return to the podium at the head of a squad that looks more than capable of resuming its top three status in the final medals table.

  Dean and his closest revival Duncan Scott continued a stunning surge to prominence by the British swimming team – kick-started by Peaty’s heroics in Rio – while Daley and Matty Lee underscored a wave of promise for Team GB in the water.

  Hodgkinson’s ongoing battle to avoid another silver lining against rivals Athing Mu and Mary Moraa will generate top billing on the track, where double world champion Josh Kerr resumes his mouthwatering rivalry with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

  The international narrative will inevitably be headed by Simone Biles, hoping to add to her current haul of seven Olympic medals after recovering from a psychological phenomenon known as the ‘twisties’ which restricted her success in Tokyo to a solitary – if heroic – bronze on the beam.

  Meanwhile French hopes do not come any bigger – literally – than judo heavyweight Teddy Riner, who boasts three Olympic golds and 11 world titles, and bids to cap his extraordinary career with another victory on home soil.

  All of which will be played out in front of the welcome sight of sold-out grandstands, a world away from the bare bleachers in Tokyo, and a symbol, or so the IOC would like to see it, of the Games having weathered one of the most serious storms in its history.

  It is perhaps that new-found consciousness of the need to adapt that has pushed the IOC into making more aggressive changes, be it in future bidding processes or in urging the b-boys and b-girls off the streets and into the Olympic auditorium for the first time.

  The Olympic movement has evolved unthinkably since that first Paris Games 124 years ago, when resolutely amateur pursuits like angling, ballooning and croquet were also on the programme, the latter reportedly staged in front of a single paying spectator.

  Some might say the latest changes are a step too far. But after the turmoil of Tokyo, most of those fortunate enough to be present in Paris will just be grateful that the Olympics are back, and braced to bop to any kind of beat at all.

• Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott named in Team GB swimming squad for Paris Olympics

  Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott have been included in Team GB’s 33-strong swimming squad for this summer’s Olympics.

  Peaty secured his spot at Paris 2024 at the British Championships earlier this month and will be gunning for a third successive gold medal in his signature men’s 100 metres breaststroke event.

  He set the fastest time for 2024 in the discipline at the British trials after a turbulent past couple of years in which he has struggled with injuries and a much-publicised battle with his mental health.

  “I’m thrilled to have made my third Olympic team,” Peaty said. “It’s always amazing to be part of Team GB, but with it being so close to home in Paris this summer, and us having more home fans there supporting us, it’s even more exciting.”

  Scott, who became the first Briton to win four medals at a single Games at Tokyo 2020, also booked his passage by winning the men’s 200m individual medley and finishing as runner-up to Matt Richards in the men’s 100m and 200m freestyle events in London a couple of weeks ago.

  Richards aims to break Scott’s record and become the first Briton to win five medals at one Games and has been chosen, as has Tom Dean although the double Olympic champion will almost certainly not defend the men’s 200m freestyle title he won in Tokyo after failing to get a top-two spot in the British trials.

  Freya Colbert and Oliver Morgan are among 10 swimmers who will make their Olympic debuts, while Freya Anderson has been selected despite missing out on automatic qualification after contracting glandular fever at the start of the year.

  Team GB won a record eight medals in the pool in Tokyo, surpassing their previous best of seven from the 1908 Games.

  “Team GB has a proud tradition in Olympic swimming competitions, and I am delighted to welcome all 33 athletes to the team for Paris 2024,” said Team GB chef de mission Mark England.

  “The strength and depth of our pool swimming team was evident to see at the recent Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, and along with the 10 swimmers making their debut for Team GB it is fantastic to welcome back seven Olympic Champions and nine Olympic medallists.

  “I have no doubt the thrilling races we saw at the British Championships last week will be equally close fought.”