Alice Dearing interviews Toby Robinson

Alice Dearing sits down with Paris 2024 marathon swimmer Toby Robinson to speak about the work he is doing to make swimming in urban waterways in London a reality and a right

Alice: Let’s start at the beginning, can you tell me about your swimming story and what drew you to open water?

I did swimming lessons when I was young, and once I finished the stages I was like “what happens now, do I just stop swimming?” Thankfully, I was pointed towards my local Wolverhampton Swimming Club. I swam there alongside the other sports I was doing, triathlon being the main one, in which I got to national level, but I also did football and tennis… even fencing, if you can believe that! And I am really thankful to my parents for giving me all of these opportunities. Aged 16, I picked up a knee injury which wiped out my chances in triathlon, but I could still swim. I joined Royal Wolverhampton Swimming Club, qualifying for British Champs for the first time aged 17, then moving to Loughborough swimming at the Performance Centre and the University squad for 10 years! I was a good 1,500 swimmer…

Very good 1500 swimmer.

Yeah, that was my event. Eventually my coach, Kevin Renshaw (coach of David Davis, Daniel Fogg, Jack Burnell) suggested that I try open water and I went and did a few competitions and it turned out that I was quite good at it!

But the main thing was that I enjoyed it. It’s more interesting. Having 60-70 men lined up, competing for space; it’s tactical, it’s physical, you need speed, endurance, strength. All of these make for a very exciting race, to which pool swimming can’t match up to. And you get the locations, too – it takes you to some beautiful places: the Seychelles, Hong Kong, and Spain.

Last year you launched a new swim event called Swim London, tell us about this and what it means for open water swimming in the UK

I believe that London is the best city in the world for putting on sporting events. I see Swim London as the answer to having a great swimming race in our city, which can rival the other sports events that dominate London’s calendar year on year. We have a target for 350 swimmers to take part this year. Moving forward to a 10-year plan of having this be an iconic stop for an urban swim globally. We saw it in Paris (2024) on an elite stage and I want this opportunity in the UK. There will be a 5k and a 10k race with a straight swim down the river. This gives the opportunity for elite swimmers to post a sub 1hr 10km, which is rare and fun. We are currently looking for commercial partners so if it is of interest to anyone to sponsor what is going to be an iconic swim, please get in touch.

This sounds so exciting and I’ll be one of your 350 for 2026! Speaking of urban swims, what has been your personal favourite in your time?

TR: Over the years, we have both done a lot of them, Barcelona harbour, Seville, Budapest… some amazing locations. It gives the city a chance to show off what they have but also the ability to have people swimming through it. So, my favourite was of course, Paris for the Olympic Games, swimming through one of the most iconic and historical cities in the world in a world famous river. With the banks full of spectators, with the Seine being the main stage for us. The current was so strong, we were swimming 45 seconds/100 down the river and then 85 seconds/100 on the way back.

And of course, the media coverage surrounding it was quite negative given the issues of cleanliness. I know this then led you to becoming a Swimmable Cities Ambassador, can you tell us about this work?

Yes, our race in the Seine was the work of years of environmental action, billions of euros, engineering, so much work which a large, western country has done to clean up its water for this event. Given the media coverage I tried to flip the negativity on its head, speaking to journalists to say that it is a great symbol for what urban waterways can be. And an example of the wider impact sport can have on a city. You can now swim in the Seine as a member of the public, because of the Olympics. You can now swim in the river after 150 years. Swimmable Cities was born in 2024 out of the impact that the Games had on urban swimming. It’s about having accessible areas in urban environments which are safe and available for people to swim in. I opened the inaugural summit in Rotterdam in 2025. And now I work to spread the word about having clean, accessible water to swim in across cities and urban landscapes.