James Guy (swimmer)

James George Guy (born 26 November 1995) is an English competitive swimmer who specialises in freestyle and butterfly. Guy has won multiple gold medals at each of the major international meets available to him, including for Great Britain at the Olympic Games (3), the World (5) and European Championships (7), and for England in the Commonwealth Games (2). In addition to further medals in those events, he has also reached the podium at both the World and European short-course championships. With 46 major medals at international championship meets, 20 at global level, he is one of the most decorated swimmers in British history.

Guy came to international prominence when he won two World Championship gold medals in the 200-metre freestyle and 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay event at the 2015 World Aquatics Championships, and silver in the 400 metre freestyle behind controversial Chinese swimmer Sun Yang. A prodigious relay swimmer, in 2016, he won silver in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay and the 4 × 100 m medley relay at the Rio Olympics, finishing 4th in the individual 200 metre freestyle event. He helped defend the men's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay world title in 2017, and swam the butterfly leg to help Great Britain to gold in the 4 × 100 metre medley relay at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships. Guy is a Commonwealth Games and seven-time European champion across various relay events. Guy competes in 4 × 100 m freestyle, 4 × 200 m freestyle, and on the butterfly legs of 4 × 100 m medley relays.

In 2021, at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Guy became Olympic champion, winning gold in the 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay for Great Britain with Tom Dean, Duncan Scott, Matt Richards and Calum Jarvis. He won a second Olympic title, the inaugural mixed medley relay, with Adam Peaty, Anna Hopkin, Kathleen Dawson and Freya Anderson. His third Olympic title, and sixth Olympic medal came once more in the 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics, alongside Dean, Scott and Richards, (with Keiran Bird and Jack McMillan now taking heat swims). It was the first time in the history of the event that the exact same four swimmers had defended the Olympic title.