Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics April, with open water event swimmers selected after performance in the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships, in Seville, Spain. In winning six medals (two gold, two silver and two bronze) the team bettered the target of three medals set by UK Sport. The most successful swimmer was Rebecca Adlington who won two gold medals. Her 400 m freestyle success was Britain's first Olympic swimming title since 1988, and the first swimming gold by a British woman since 1960. Her second gold, in the 800 m freestyle, meant she also equalled the best performance by a British woman, from any
Rebecca Adlington would not compete in Rio. Adlington set a new British, Commonwealth, European and Olympic record of 8:18.06 in the preliminary heats of the women's 800-metre freestyle on 14 August 2008. She went on to win the Olympic 800-metre freestyle final on 16 August 2008 in a world record time of 8:14.10, her second gold of the tournament, a full six seconds ahead of the silver medalist, and two seconds ahead of the former world record which had been set by Janet Evans when Adlington was 6 months old. At the time, this was swimming's longest standing world record. The Sherwood