Great Britain swimming superstar Sharron Davies is backing Alex Cohoon to make a big impression at the Paris Olympics in a couple of months’ time.

The 21-year-old Fairford flier has been selected for the men’s 4x100 metres freestyle relay after booking his place with a stunning performance at the London Aquatics Centre at the start of April.

Davies, who won the silver medal in the 400m individual medley at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, said: “There was a good selection process for choosing the 2024 Olympic swimmers and the right people got chosen.”

The 61-year-old met Cohoon, a student at Loughborough University, at Lucknam Park Hotel and Spa, near Chippenham, and like everyone else in the sport she has been hugely impressed by the one-time Cirencester Swimming Club member.

The former Farmor’s School pupil was considered an outside chance to make this year’s Olympics – he was expected to be a much stronger contender for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles – but finished fourth in the 100 metres freestyle in a personal best time of 48.2 seconds at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships seven weeks ago to earn his spot in the Team GB squad.

Cohoon will compete in the relay alongside Tom Dean, Matthew Richards and Duncan Scott, and what makes his performance all the more praiseworthy is that for a long time it was rugby rather than swimming that was his main focus.

He was in the Gloucester Academy back in the day and Davies obviously believes that he has made a good career move.

“The sport of swimming is in a good place at the moment both nationally and internationally,” she said.

Davies first competed at the Olympics in 1976, in Montreal, when she was just 13, and Petra Schneider, the East German swimmer who beat her to gold in Moscow, later admitted that the victory was drug enhanced.

The TV personality used to live in the Cotswolds and she has known the Cohoon family for a good number of years because Alex’s dad Craig taught her to water ski.

Davies will be commentating for the BBC in Paris later in the summer. The Paris Olympics run from Friday 26^th July to Sunday 11^th August.