{"id":10731,"date":"2023-10-25T13:35:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T12:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=10731"},"modified":"2025-12-07T05:43:01","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T05:43:01","slug":"surrey-swimmers-shine-at-world-school-sport-games-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=10731","title":{"rendered":"Surrey swimmers shine at World School Sport Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

County swimmers Aidan Orpin and Max Morgan chart their England representation and medal-winning exploits at the ISF U15 Gymnasiade in Brazil in August.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We are Aidan and Max and we have been a part of the Surrey swimming team at the National County Team Championships for the last two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

In August, we had the opportunity to represent England at the International School Sport Federation\u2019s second U15 Gymnasiade \u2013 in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were picked for the Games after wins for our divisions at the English Schools\u2019 Swimming Association (ESSA) 72nd Inter-Divisional Championships in Coventry, in March. Aidan swam for London and Max for the South East.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"We felt proud to have been selected and it was very exciting to be able to join a squad of 23 other swimmers to travel out to Brazil and compete.<\/span><\/p>\n

The whole Gymnasiade comprised of more than 15 sports including athletics, swimming, table tennis, fencing, archery, orienteering and chess.<\/span><\/p>\n

England had teams representing in both table tennis and swimming. There were also para-swimming events and our squad included seven para-swimmers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our journey to Brazil started on August 17 when we stayed at Heathrow airport. At the hotel we got our kit, complete with the England flag and sponsor logos. It was also a good opportunity to get to know our team-mates, the coaches and ESSA staff who made the trip possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

We had an early start the next day to catch the first flight out to Rio. The flight, via Amsterdam, took over 12 hours and we touched down in Brazil on Friday evening. When we arrived at the hotel there was plenty of time to settle in, shake off jet lag and adjust to the time-zone difference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our hotel was at the Olympic Park in Rio, which hosted all 20 swimming teams that had travelled from around the world. These included Argentina, China, USA and the host team, Brazil.<\/span><\/p>\n

The competition didn\u2019t start until Monday so we had a couple of days to train and get used to the pool, the climate and the food. The competition took place at UNIFA, University of the Air Force, as sadly the pool from the 2016 Olympics is no longer open.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opening ceremony for the Games was on Sunday evening, which included a flag-bearing parade and music and dance performances from a variety of countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Monday the competition began and we both felt great starting off the week.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Day 1 (Aug 21)<\/span><\/strong>
\nMax: 50m breaststroke \u2013 gold<\/span>
\nAidan: 4x100m freestyle relay \u2013 silver<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 2 (Aug 22)<\/span><\/strong>
\nMax: 100m breaststroke \u2013 finalist<\/span>
\nAidan: 50m backstroke \u2013 gold; 200m butterfly \u2013 bronze<\/span>
\nBoth: 4x100m medley relay \u2013 gold<\/span><\/p>\n

The most exciting race was the 4x100m medley relay in which we both swam: Max on breaststroke and Aidan on the butterfly leg. The Brazil team were very strong and the commentator was convinced that they had it in the bag. But when our team-mate Gabriel touched in 0.03sec ahead, there was stunned silence from the Brazilian-heavy spectator stands.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday we enjoyed a day off, with a cultural day that included a trip to the beautiful Copacabana beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. In the evening we tried different foods and practices from all the competing countries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Day 3 (Aug 24)<\/span><\/strong>
\nWe were back at the pool for another day of competition: prelims in the morning and finals in the afternoon.<\/span>
\nMax: 200m breaststroke \u2013 silver<\/span>
\nAidan: 50m butterfly \u2013 finalist<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Day 4 (Aug 25)<\/span><\/strong>
\nMax: 4x100m mixed medley relay \u2013 gold<\/span>
\nAidan: 100m butterfly \u2013 finalist<\/span><\/p>\n

The English swimming team had been extremely successful in the pool and we came out on top of the swimming medal table by the end of the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The closing ceremony was on Saturday night, which included similar things as the opening ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n

We spent an extra day in Brazil and, although it was a bit rainy, we got to see a few more of the famous landmarks such as Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf Mountain.<\/span><\/p>\n

We had the most amazing trip and it is definitely an experience we would recommend to others if you get the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

We both want to say a big thank you to Surrey County ASA for supporting us on our trip.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aidan and Max<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

County swimmers Aidan Orpin and Max Morgan write about their England representation in Brazil in the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15,14,11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-schools","10":"category-swimming","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10731"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12212,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10731\/revisions\/12212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}