If you needed more proof that Black women are undefeated, over the weekend 24-year-old Alice Dearing qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, making her the first Black female swimmer to represent Great Britain.
Dearing finished in fourth place in a 10km marathon race in Portugal on June 19 which qualified her for the Tokyo Olympic Games, ESPN reported. She and the other competitors were told that the first nine swimmers to cross the finish line would secure a place in the Olympics this summer. Dearing delivered, clocking in at two hours, two minutes and one second.
The 24-year-old shared news of her victory on Twitter.
“So excited to officially announce that I have been selected as a @teamagb athlete for the Tokyo 2020 games…I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity and thoroughly look forward to representing GB at the highest level of my sport,” she wrote.
My achievement is the result of 16 years of work and the support from countless people around me.
I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity and throughly look forward to representing GB at the highest level of my sport.
LET’S GOOOOOO SIS ????????????
(Pic from 2008) pic.twitter.com/f05zLLZ8qG
— Alice Dearing (@alicedearingx) June 25, 2021
Dearing spoke with British Swimming about her victory and qualifying for the Olympics.
“I’m really excited, relieved, grateful, it’s a huge mix of emotions,” Dearing said. “I can’t quite believe it, I’ve been daydreaming about this day for the past year and a half, ever since the first lockdown came in."
Dearing went on to thank those who supported her journey.
“I’m just so grateful to everybody who has helped me along the way, everyone who has believed me, encouraged me,” she said. “When I was younger, I never really thought about being an Olympian – I thought ‘oh wow, it would be so cool’, but I knew how much hard work went into it and honestly didn’t think I was cut out for it. So I’m really proud to have proved myself wrong, in a way, and to achieve beyond my wildest dreams.”
In 2016, Dearing won the World Junior Championships but said she never thought she would have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics.
“…to be put up for selection for the Olympics, it’s an incredible achievement and I’m so relieved and grateful and happy for everything I’ve invested," she said.
Dearing will be the third Black swimmer to compete in the Olympics for Team Great Britain, following behind Kevin Burns and Paul Marshall.
