Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.

Jack Burnell finished fifth* in the 2015 FINA World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games 10 km marathon swim.

He was happy to qualify and certainly among the 2016 medal favorites, but disappointed at his final placing. But he has an Olympian’s focus and confidence to achieve his dream.

“Anything other than a gold medal in Rio [was] a disappointment,” he told H2Open Magazine. “[At the 2015 World Championships in Russia], we went into that race 100% expecting to medal if not to win it.”

This is a kind of drive that has pushed him for hours in the pool and dryland training for years building up to the Olympics. He has the drive, talent and support of British Swimming to see gold at the end of his Olympic journey.

* Olympic 10 km marathon swim qualification results (2015 World Championships):
1 Jordan Wilimovsky (USA) 1:49:48.2
2 Ferry Weertman (NED) 1:50:00.3
3 Spyridon Gianniotis (GRE) 1:50:00.7
4 Sean Ryan (USA) 1:50:03.3
5 Jack Burnell (GBR) 1:50:05.8
6 Marc-Antoine Daniel Frede Olivier (FRA) 1:50:06.4
7 Simone Ruffini (ITA) 1:50:09.1
8 Richard Weinberger (CAN) 1:50:19.9
9 Allan Do Carmo (BRA) 1:50:23.1
10 Federico Vanelli (ITA) 1:50:23.1

Photo shows Jack Burnell (middle), Spyridon Gianniotis (left), and Simone Ruffini (right) at the FINA/HOSA 10K Marathon Swimming World Cup race in Balatonfüred, Hungary in June 2015.

Copyright © 2015 by World Open Water Swimming Association