Training with Olympic champion Adam Peaty might sound like a daunting prospect but Cumbrian swimmer Edward Baxter is using that experience to take him to the next level.

The 20-year-old has been training with Peaty since 2016, following his Olympic success at Rio, and has gone from strength to strength since training at Loughborough National Training Centre.

The breaststroker has a host of British National titles to his name but is now focussed on the World trials in April as he aims on making the Great Britain squad for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"I'm Adam's training partner so I train with him every day. It's pretty cool to know the guy next to you is the fastest swimmer on the planet,” said Baxter.

"When I was 17, I started looking around to see where I would pursue my senior swimming career. I found a few different clubs and looked at a few different places.

“I went to train with Adam and Mel Marshall. After that the first round of training she asked me if I wanted to come on a six-week training camp to Australia. We went to Australia and I've trained with her ever since then.

"We've got a camp leading into December. In December we've got English short-course nationals which will be a good stepping stone towards April, when the World trials are.

“That'll be a nice thing to tide us over, a short focus before we get towards April.”

Baxter was speaking at a SportsAid event in the House of Commons as part of the charity’s new three-year partnership with GVC Holdings, meeting with Paralympic champions Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Danny Crates as well as two-time European swimming champion Lizzie Simmonds.
The partnership will see GVC, the multi-national sports betting and gaming group behind brands such as Ladbrokes and Coral, supporting 50 of the country’s brightest sporting prospects annually through SportsAid.
The collaboration forms part of a multi-million pound investment by GVC into grassroots, community and health projects. 

Baxter has been supported by the charity, who have funded British athletes since 1976, for the last year and holds his British record in the 200m breaststroke when he was 16 as his proudest achievement to date.

The Youth Commonwealth Games champion of 2017 said: "My first British record I broke that when I was 16. That was the first time I stepped back and thought all the hard work I'd done was for. That was over 200m. Breaking that was the first time I went 'wow' and realised that was what you train for.

“My first national title or winning at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2015, those were probably the three highlights of my career so far.

"SportsAid was a massive help because I'm in a group of training partners who are pretty much all full-time swimmers.

“We all swim full-time and because there's no education the members are going through we get to go away on a lot of camps. We're going to Dubai in a couple of weeks and Australia soon. It's really good for paying for those.”

GVC is proud to be championing the next generation of British athletes by providing them with financial support and personal development opportunities in partnership with SportsAid. Please visit https://gvc-plc.com to find out more about the Group.