Ben Proud

King of the 'splash and dash', Ben Proud was the fastest man in the pool in Birmingham.

Decidedly a 50m specialist, Proud successfully defended his 50m freestyle title which also grabbing gold in the 50m butterfly at his home Commonwealth Games.

His freestyle exploits meant that Proud completed the famed three-peat of the Commonwealth event, dominating from 2014 to present day.

In fact, the Commonwealth Games have always been a happy hunting ground for Ben Proud. 

Raised in Malaysia, Proud moved to Plymouth from Kuala Lumpur on a swimming scholarship in 2011 and three years later was making his mark at Glasgow 2014. 

Proud won 50m freestyle and butterfly gold medals as well as a 4x100m freestyle silver, and won a further gold and two silvers at the Gold Coast games four years later. 

He has excelled on every world stage, winning a range of European and World level medals throughout his career - and became the first man to hold the World, European and Commonwealth 50m freestyle titles in the same year in 2022.

He set a new Games record in Australia for the 50m freestyle, finishing in a time of 21.30.