A FLINTSHIRE swimmer will be competing against the very best in the world this summer.

Rhys Darbey, of the Nofio Clwyd swimming club, has been selected to represent Britain at this year’s Paralympic Games in Paris.

The 2024 Paralympics will run between August 28 and September 8.
Darbey made his international breakthrough in 2023 as he secured qualification for the Manchester Para Swimming World Championships in the Men’s SM14 200m individual medley event.

Darbey, who competes in the S14 class for athletes with an Intellectual Impairment, capped his World Championship debut on home soil by stepping onto the podium, having stormed home on the closing freestyle leg of the race to move through the field into the silver medal spot.

Paris 2024 will be Darbey’s debut Paralympic Games.

He told BBC Sport Wales: “I’m feeling pretty excited. I’ve been swimming eight sessions a week for two hours, getting up at half five in the morning Monday to Saturday. Then doing two or three gym sessions in the afternoons. So it’s quite tiring.”

Darbey feels like he is a swimmer for the big occasions and he added: “I feel I can really lock in when it comes to a big moment.

“I’m really good at stepping up.

“When I dive in the water I feel it just clears my head of everything else that’s going on.”

Last autumn, his dreams of competing at the Paralympics came a stroke nearer when he was selected for the World Class Para Swim Programme with British Swimming.

At the time Craig Breeze, the head coach at Nofio Clwyd, said: “We are on the look out for sponsors who may want to support both ourselves and our athletes journey.

“Rhys has his dreams now set to qualify for Paralympic Games in 2024 at Paris.

“This is a realistic possibility which would be amazing for Flintshire, just like when Jade Jones did it.

“Rhys has also been selected for the World Class Para Programme with British Swimming, which is a huge achievement and one we are all very proud of in addition to his World Para Championships silver medal.”

Darbey brilliantly claimed a medal at the World Para Swimming Championships last summer.

The championships were held close to home in Manchester last August and Darbey claimed a personal best and a silver medal.

He competed in the SM14 men’s 200m individual medley event, achieving a personal best of 2-12.36 in the heat to book his place in the final.

Darbey then smashed this with a time of 2-10.9 in the final, finishing second to Canada’s Nicholas Bennett, who achieved 2-07.98, less than half-a-second off Gabriel Bandeira’s world record.

Some half-a-second behind Darbey was Ukraine’s Dmytro Vanzenko, who touched for bronze.

It was another fine achievement for Darbey, who began swimming with the Connah’s Quay club around eight years ago.