Alice Dearing

Alice Dearing is a trailblazing Olympic open water swimmer and passionate advocate for inclusivity in sport. As a speaker, Alice brings her unique blend of elite athletic experience, academic insight, and social impact work to inspire audiences across the UK and beyond. She speaks with authenticity, warmth, and conviction on topics ranging from resilience and representation to breaking barriers in traditionally exclusive spaces. Her journey from the swimming lanes to the Olympic stage and now to centre stage as a speaker offers a powerful narrative that resonates with teams, schools, organisations, and businesses alike.

Alice’s swimming career began in her hometown of Birmingham, where she showed early promise in the pool. Progressing through the ranks of British swimming, she went on to win gold at the 2016 World Junior Open Water Championships, a defining moment that propelled her onto the global stage. Balancing her athletic career with academics, she studied Social Media and Political Communication at Loughborough University, demonstrating the same discipline and drive outside the pool as she did in it. Her experiences as one of very few Black swimmers in elite-level British sport shaped her voice as a powerful advocate for change.

In 2020, Alice co-founded the Black Swimming Association, a charity dedicated to increasing water safety and swimming participation among Black and minority ethnic communities. She made history by becoming the first Black woman to represent Team GB in swimming at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she competed in the 10km marathon swim. Her contributions to sport and society have earned her widespread recognition, including being named Sunday Times Changemaker of the Year and appearing on the BBC Woman’s Hour Power List. In 2024, she retired from competitive swimming to focus fully on her mission to make aquatics accessible and inclusive for all.

Alice is hired as a speaker not only for her remarkable sporting accolades, but because she speaks to something bigger: what it means to strive, to lead with purpose, and to create lasting change. Her story challenges norms, uplifts marginalised voices, and encourages audiences to think differently about inclusion, identity, and high performance. Whether addressing corporate leaders, educators, or young people, Alice delivers insight, courage, and inspiration in equal measure.