Gregor Swinney heading to Commonwealth Games in Birmingham

Gregor, who attended Kingsland Primary School and Peebles High School, started swimming with Peebles Amateur Swimming Club where he was coached by Rosie Sim.

Whilst there he also became a member of Borders Elite Swim Team, coached by Alex Jordan and subsequently Lauren Jocelyn.

In 2016 he moved to Glasgow to study Business at Strathclyde University. He continued swimming and joined City of Glasgow Swim Team under coach Ian Wright.

Last month at the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield, he broke the Scottish record for 50m butterfly.

Gregor Swinney

This record had stood for the previous sixteen years, in breaking the record he became the first Scottish swimmer to swim under 24 seconds in a time of 23.97 sec.

At the Scottish National Open Meet, held in Aberdeen Aquatics Centre on July 1-3, he broke his own Scottish record for the 50m butterfly in a time of 23.96 and became Scottish National Open Champion.

His form continued in the 100m butterfly winning silver in a personal best time of 53.42 sec.

Gregor is now on a 10-day warm weather training camp in Calella, Spain and on his return he will be attending the Team Scotland holding camp in Aberdeen before heading off to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Gregor said “It is an honour to be selected to represent your country. I thank my mum and dad for all their support in getting me to this point. I also wish to thank the coaches at Peebles Swimming Club where I started this journey and to Borders Elite Swim Team where I continued the journey.”