"Sport has given me so much good in my life and I would love to see more people discover their opportunities for themselves."

Access Sport welcomes Olympic marathon swimmer and diversity advocate, Alice Dearing, as our newest ambassador.

Working together, we will make inclusion the norm, ensuring everyone can access the transformational benefits of inclusive, community sport.

In 2021, Alice became the first black woman to swim for Great Britain at an Olympic Games, a historic milestone for diversity in British sport. Fiercely passionate about inclusion, Alice has worked for over five years to make swimming accessible for everyone, regardless of age, background or location.

Her commitment to ensuring swimming is for all led to her co-founding the Black Swimming Association; a charitable organisation that seeks to advocate water safety and inclusion for Black and Asian minorities within swimming.

Her work has seen her recognised globally as an advocate for change, including being awarded The Sunday Times Changemaker Of The Year award in 2022 and in 2023 she was announced No.3 on the BBC Woman’s Hour Power list.

Alice’s new relationship with Access Sport reflects her renewed commitment to inclusion in sport. After her retirement in 2024, Alice is focussing on supporting organisations making positive change in sport.

Alice said:

“Access Sport has a wonderful ethos of giving sporting opportunities to all, an ideal which I very much align with and want to help promote as much as possible. Sport has given me so much good in my life and I would love to see more people discover their opportunities for themselves.”

In 2024, Alice also launched a new global swimming initiative, Swim With Your Meaning, SWYM. The program launched in Accra, Ghana where 20 participants are taken on a learn-to-swim program over 10 weeks. SWYM aims to help more people around the world discover what swimming can mean for them as individuals and communities and how it can enrich their lives.

Away from the water, and surprisingly to some – Alice is a serious gamer, and when not swimming or focusing on her advocacy work – you’ll likely find her playing the latest PC or PS5 title!

Helen Rowbotham, CEO, said:

“It is fantastic to have Alice onboard! Alice’s experience as an elite swimmer, alongside her passion for inclusion, means she is perfectly placed to support our vision. Alice is the definition of a changemaker and we are confident that together we can make a real difference in disabled and disadvantaged young people’s lives. Having recently expanded our swimming programme, we also look forward to collaborating with Alice to make the sport more accessible for all young people.”

Getting influential individuals to stand for inclusion with us is key to our mission, so thank you to Alice for agreeing to join the team. We look forward to working together in the coming years.

To meet our other Ambassadors please click the link below:

Access Sport Ambassadors

To find out more about Access Sport’s Changing Sports programme, please click the link below:

Changing Sports >