Angharad Evans on Leaving NCAA, Prevailing By Strain, and Ascending to One of many World’s High Breaststrokers

Angharad Evans has had a heck of a summer time, raking in 7 medals throughout the Commonwealth Games and European Championships. This included double particular person gold (100/200 Breast) at Comm Games in Glasgow and Gold (100 Breast) and Silver (200 Breast) in Paris at Euros. Evans has not had a linear development up up to now, and we dive into that journey in at the moment’s podcast.

In 2021, at age 18, Evans got here to the USA to coach and research on the University of Georgia. Prior to her arrival, Evans hadn’t visited UGA and didn’t have a lot of an idea of what her expertise there could be like. During her 12 months on the swim crew, she didn’t make sturdy connections with the coaches, and the high-yardage program didn’t appear to be an excellent match. She left this system following her freshman season and stopped swimming altogether, staying in Athens and attending lessons. However, with out the construction swimming supplied, Evans went downhill and in the end wound up going again to Scotland in December of 2022.

After slowly getting again into the water within the winter, coaching together with her dwelling membership crew by means of the spring and competing at British trials in April 2023, the breaststroke specialist determined to essentially give swimming one other go. She ended up on the University of Stirling below coach Ben Higson, and it has been a powerful match for Evans ever since.

In 2024, Evans certified for her first Olympics and made the ultimate in Paris within the 100 Breast. Last summer time in Singapore, she made the ultimate within the 200 breast at World Champs. After going greatest occasions in each the 100 and 200 at British Trials this April, Evans put immense strain on herself going into a house Commonwealth Games. Even although she was capable of get her hand on the wall first in each the 100 and 200, her occasions had been nicely off her greatest. She utterly modified her mindset heading into Europeans, attempting to focus solely on her execution slightly than the race itself. This paid off, displaying higher occasions whereas she was nonetheless capable of retain gold standing within the 100, in addition to incomes silver within the 200.