Lauren Cox determined to make Olympic history after Paris heartbreak

Times

3 days ago

A year ago, a heartbroken Lauren Cox almost quit the sport she loved because the Olympic Games had no home for a sprint backstroke specialist like her.
If freestyle had been her thing, she would have travelled to Paris last summer as big a medal hope as Ben Proud, who claimed silver in the Olympic 50 metres freestyle.
At the world championships in Singapore on Thursday, Cox, 23, fell only 0.06sec shy of a medal in the 50m backstroke, finishing fifth. Her career was back on track in a new era that will no longer cut her out of the Olympics.
The 50m freestyle was added to the Games in 1988 in the belief that a one-length sprint would add a glamorous thrill, but there was no room for 50m events for any other stroke. This was still the case in Paris last year, when Cox just failed to earn selection in the 100m event.
Ian Hulme, her coach at Loughborough at the time, eventually persuaded Cox to return to the pool but she agreed only on the understanding that she would only swim for fun. Her Loughborough team-mate Adam Peaty understood Cox's dilemma — he was a triple world champion, as well as a record-holder, in the 50m breaststroke — but his only Olympic target as a sprinter was the 100m.
He told Cox to hang on, appointed her as an ambassador to his AP Race business and made it clear that he would be up for a comeback for Los Angeles 2028 if 50m events were added to the programme. On April 9, Olympic chiefs announced they would be. Peaty declared, 'I'll be there!', and so did Cox.
'I remember that moment and feeling so well,' Cox said. 'I can finally talk about it now without crying. I remember touching the wall [in the 100m at trials] and knowing that was it. I was out. I felt like I had let everyone down and I just wanted to burst into tears. It was awful. Heartbreaking.'
Only six weeks after the good news, Cox broke the British 50m backstroke record in 27.15 at the AP Race International in London. 'I just love the 50s; instead of just going and getting the T-shirt I can be an Olympic finalist or medallist, which is exciting.'
The swimming will take place in a temporary pool sunk into SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles, with 38,000 spectators, by far the biggest capacity for swimming at the Olympics.
Meanwhile Cox's fifth-place finish has only been bettered by one British swimmer at these championships — Duncan Scott, who finished a solid fourth in the 200m medley.
Ahead of him, in a class of his own, was France's four-times Olympic champion Léon Marchand, who annihilated the world record on Tuesday in 1min 52.69sec. He was slower for gold on Thursday, finishing ahead of the USA's Shaine Casas and Hungary's Hubert Kos.
Meanwhile, the Canadian triple Olympic champion Summer McIntosh collected her third gold, in the 200m butterfly, with a spectacular competition record of 2:01.99 on Thursday, and has two more golden targets ahead.
Saturday brings the 18-year-old's highly anticipated clash with the unbeaten American distance legend Katie Ledecky in the 800m, before she concludes her championships in the 400m medley the following day — an event that will almost certainly end with gold for the Canadian.
Yu Zidi, the Chinese 12-year-old, will be in that race, too, having finished fourth behind McIntosh in the 200m medley and 200m butterfly. Whatever happens on Sunday, she will go home the youngest-ever medallist at the world championships as China took bronze in the 4x200m freestyle, granting heats swimmer Yu a medal.
For Cox, though, there is added motivation to get on the podium in LA. Her fifth place may not have been as good as the bronze she won at the world championships two years ago, but it has given her the belief that she belongs.
'I thought after the 2023 medal that it could be a fluke. I just need more confidence and belief in myself. I doubt myself a lot… so it's nice to see that I'm still up there with the best and three years to get ready' to make Olympic history.