Nicholas Grainger
Born Oct. 3, 1994 Nicholas Grainger, also known as Nick, is a swimmer from Great Britain. Standing 6’8″ Grainger is a distance freestyle specialist, and studied at Shef Hallum University in Great Britain, which had a a solid distance training group.
2014 breakout
Prior to 2014 Grainger was relatively unheard of. Competing for City of Sheffield, Grainger swam at the 2014 British Universities and Colleges Sport Long Course Swimming Championships. He won the 1500m freestyle, and qualified for the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow.
2014 Commonwealth Games
His swims at the Universities and Colleges Sport Championships got Grainger to Glasgow, and he battled for a spot in the final of the 200m freestyle. Grainger finished eighth in prelims in a three-way tie, and won the swim-off for a spot in the final, where he finished eighth in his first Commonwealth Games.
Back injury
When Grainger made that Commonwealth Games team, he had been dealing with a painful back injury. After pushing through the pain, he later found out that he had a spinal fracture, which was due to poor core strength. In order to rehabilitate his back injury, Grainger went through 10 weeks of intense core work, which he says has affected his swimming in a huge way.
Team FINIS
Grainger is represented by Agon sports management, and is also a recent member of Team FINIS. The specialized swimming equipment company has recently sponsored five other British athletes going into the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, picking some of the world’s freshest group of talent.
400m freestyle
One of Grainger’s favorite events is the 400m freestyle, particularly for its deep amount of competition. At the British Swimming Championships in 2015 Grainger finished second in the final of the 400m freestyle, which put him in a good spot for the World Championships in the event. Grainger is one of 2015’s top-10 fastest swimmers worldwide in the 400m freestyle.
2015 World Championships
Grainger won a gold medal for his heat swim in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay. He joined with Robbie Renwick, Dan Wallace and Duncan Scott to put the GB team through to the final in third position. In the final Grainger and Scott were replaced by James Guy and Calum Jarvis. The quartet won the gold in 7:04.33.
2017 World Championships
At his second World Championships Grainger became a World Champion again. But this time he was in the lineup for Great Britain in the finals. He went second after Steven Milne to split a 1:46.05 to put Great Britain in fourth position. Duncan Scott took over to move Great Britain up in to third and James Guy anchored in an incredible 1:43.80 to bring them home for the gold in 7:01.70.