Schlosshan leaving no stone unturned in pursuit of Olympic dream

By Tom Harle, Sportsbeat - 0203 026 3780

City of Leeds high-flier Leah Schlosshan is making life decisions with the Paris 2024 Olympics in mind.

The 18-year-old broke out with 200m medley gold at last year’s European Junior Championships, touching the wall for a personal best two seconds shy of the Olympic qualification time.

That brought her Team GB dream in closer focus and the straight A* GCSE student has eschewed university plans to chase a place in Paris.

“I know I’m still a junior swimmer but I definitely have my eye on Paris,” she said. “It would be great if I can qualify for that.

“I’ll give it my best shot next year and hopefully for many years to come. This year is about getting into senior finals and getting as close to those top girls as possible.

“I just want to swim as well as I can and be in a good place this year so I can be in an even better place next year.”

Schlosshan still plans to study medicine at university but will now take a gap year and try to drive down those times alongside long-time coach Richard Denigan.

She is sticking with what she knows in her home city, with a number of the country's best based at British Swimming Performance Centres in Loughborough and Bath, as well as the University of Stirling and Swim Wales High Performance Centre venues in Scotland and Wales respectively.

For now, consistency is the key as the teenager looks to reap more rewards from that long-term work with Denigan in Leeds.

"The training programme has worked so well for me, I get on so well with my coach. It's an Olympic year and I think it would be unreasonable of me to change things now," she said.

Schlosshan, who is half German and half Irish, will be on home territory at the upcoming British Swimming Championships, staged at Sheffield’s iconic Ponds Forge.

The event runs from 4-9 April and doubles as trials for the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

“I’m feeling pretty good going into it, I’ll just try to keep as chilled as possible and my training has been going really well,” she said.

“My family can so easily come down to watch and they don’t have to stay in hotels. I’ve swam at so many competitions at Ponds Forge over the years and I’ve got really good memories there.

“I’ve got loads of personal bests there. I swam well there twice last year and that set me up for the summer. It definitely helps having those memories to create a good vibe around racing.”

Schlosshan may be taking her first steps as a senior swimmer but has already been schooled in the hard knocks of the sport.

Troubled by race-day nerves she finished tenth in the 400m medley at the European Juniors, well short of her potential, a setback she was able to shelve and go on to take gold.

She said: “The 400 really didn’t go well at all. I didn’t want to admit it but I was really nervous. It was my second European juniors too, so I don’t know why I was so nervous.

“I didn’t speak about it with my coach much. We could reflect on it after the event, so I was just trying to block it out and I had the confidence from swimming well in training.

“I was feeling good in the warm-ups and I had a completely different mindset in the 200 and was able to get gold.

“The gold medal is the memory but I learned a lot about myself at the Championships. One race doesn’t have to determine how your whole competition goes over six days.”

Tickets are still available for the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield (4th-9th April). Head over to The Ticket Factory to secure yours - or watch all the action from every session on the British Swimming YouTube channel.