Great Britain’s Millie Costello looking forward to summer of international events

Millie Costello is ‘really excited’ ahead of a packed summer of international competition for Great Britain’s artistic swimmers.

Costello has been part of Britain’s artistic swimming squad since 2018 and is now in her second year of training and studying at the High Performance Centre in Bristol.

And after a memorable 2022 campaign, she and the rest of the squad are looking to take another step forward in 2023.

She said: “I think we made a massive step up last year and we’re looking to continue that this year.

“We don’t have a goal when it comes to the score, because it’s the first year with the new scoring system, so it’s more about adapting to it and seeing how we place against other teams.

“This year the first international competition we’ve got is the European Games which will be my first senior competition as part of Team GB so I’m really excited.

“Then we come back and ten days later we fly straight to Japan for the World Championships so it’s compact and tight schedule but I’m really looking forward to it.”

The updated artistic swimming rules have come into force for international events for the 2023 season which have been introduced by World Aquatics to ‘simplify the process, define roles and divide tasks’ within the sport.

As part of the new rules there will be two judging panels in place – elements and artistic impression – and technology will also play a key role to ‘obtain objective and detailed measurement’ of each routine.

‘The opportunity to travel, train and compete together’

Costello joined the British programme after a successful junior career where she became one of the only people to win the Holland Trophy twice in a row at the Swim England National Junior and Senior Championships in both 2018 and 2019.

She is now part of the 14-strong squad on the senior programme and is beginning to adapt to life since moving to Bristol.

“This is my second year at the High Performance Centre now and it’s made it so much easier to train.

“We’re all doing a full time degree at the same time which can be difficult but when we’re approaching competitions we’re able to put more focus into our preparation which is really important.

“And we get the benefits of being part of the squad, being together and getting the opportunity to travel, train and compete as a team.

After speaking to us at the recent 2023 Swim England’s National Age Group Championships – where the squad performed a showcase display of their technical team, technical duet, and mixed technical duet – Costello was enjoying watching the up and coming talent perform.

“It’s really good to see all the young talent coming through and to witness the future of the sport. It’s really nice sometimes when the GB Youth and Juniors squads come and train with us on camps and we get to see them and watch them perform their routines.

“And it’s great to have them around and to know that all this new talent is there and ready to come through and help the team.”

You can catch Millie and the entire British team in action at the at the European Games from June 22–26, and then at July’s World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.