Medi Harris has faced huge challenges in 2024, but she will realise her Olympic dream in Paris.
The Porthmadog swimmer will make her Olympic Games debut in Paris off the back of winning her maiden World Championship medals in February and a consistent two years of international performances since her busy debut summer of 2022.
She claimed her place at a first Olympic Games in the 200m Freestyle Relay team at the Speedo Aquatics GB Championships in London. She will also feature in the 100m Backstroke, the same event in which she claimed bronze at the Commonwealth Games.
After beginning her fledgling career at Clwb Nofio Caernarfon and Swim Gwynedd, Medi moved south to Swansea University. The backstroker – now training at the Aquatics GB Performance Centre Loughborough – left the 2024 World Champs in Doha with a silver to her name in the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay and bronze for leading off the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay in both heats and final, further outlining her impact in relay swims for GB ahead of the Games. Soon after her incredible performances, her mum, Ellie, sadly passed away.
“It feels a bit surreal,” Harris said. “It’s been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. With each competition and each team I make, I’m just learning more and more. I know my mum was proud of me no matter what I did.”
At the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka, those same relay swims brought finishes of fourth – in the women’s freestyle relay – and fifth in the mixed medley, while she placed seventh in the individual Women’s 100m Backstroke.
Medi began her breakthrough summer in 2022 by making individual finals in the 50m and 100m Backstroke at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest – finishing in seventh place in each. Her time at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham saw her pick-up her first senior international medal, as she took bronze for Team Wales in the 100m Backstroke. A silver in the same event at the 2022 European Aquatics Championships followed, with the swimmer also becoming European champion in the 4x100m Freestyle Relay.
After taking gold in the 100m Backstroke at the 2022 British Swimming Championships, she followed up with a silver in the 50m, just one hundredth of a second off the top spot. With a personal best in the 2022 season which would have been enough for a finals spot at the Tokyo Olympics, the then-Adam Baker-coached athlete gained valuable experience from her maiden senior international outing.
