Swimmer Alex Cohoon is “on top of the world” after booking his place in the Great Britain team for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The team hasn’t been officially announced but the 21-year-old will definitely be in France in July after a standout performance at the recent Aquatics GB Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre.

The one-time Cirencester Swimming Club member finished fourth in the 100 metres freestyle in a personal best time of 48.2 seconds, a performance which was good enough to earn him a place on the Team GB Olympic 4x100m freestyle relay team.

Cohoon was on holiday in Malaga with his family when he spoke to The Local Answer and he said: “To be honest it hasn’t really sunk in yet, I’m just relaxing and trying to take it all in but it’s an incredible feeling,  I’m on top of the world.”

Cohoon will line up in the relay team alongside Matthew Richards, Duncan Scott and Tom Dean, who finished first, second and third in the 100m at the Aquatics GB Championships.

Richards, Scott and Dean were all gold medal winners at the previous Olympics in Tokyo so Cohoon, who is looking forward to his first Olympics, is most definitely the new kid on the block.

It wasn’t so long ago that Cohoon, a student at Loughborough University, was ranked around 10^th in Great Britain for the 100m freestyle and he said: “Nobody expected me to finish in the top four but this is what I wanted, I was determined to show everyone what I could do.

“There was no pressure on me, I wasn't a dead cert. My coach Ian Hulme  said to just go out and enjoy myself.

“At the start of the season my target was the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028, getting to Paris is an extra bonus.”

And while it may be a bonus, Cohoon, who went to Farmor's School in Fairford, is certainly not going to Paris just to make up the numbers.

“We’ve got a special team, we’re in such a good position,” he said. “We want to win a medal, I don’t know what colour but obviously we want it to be gold.”

A gold medal would establish Cohoon as a top name in British sport and he's certainly not short of ambition.

“I want to be the face of British swimming," he said. “When it comes to Los Angeles in 2028 I want to be competing in the individual events.

“The next four years I’ll be so relaxed, I’ll have had the experience of Paris, it’s very exciting.”

Cohoon, whose girlfriend Abbie Wood is a top swimmer – she'll be competing in Paris – is also a leading 50m freestyler and is clearly coming into his peak years.

He has one more year at Loughborough University and ideally would like to focus full-time on his swimming once he has completed his studies.

“As an athlete you get only 10 or 12 years,” he said. “I think I’ve got another six, seven, eight years and I want to enjoy them.”

The Paris Olympics run from Friday 26^th July to Sunday 11^th August.