Mark Foster (swimmer) - International Career

International Career

First selected for the British team in 1985, the breakthrough came in 1990 when he won his first individual international medal - bronze - in the Commonwealth Games in Auckland. He finished the 50 metres freestyle with a time of 23.16 seconds. He had previously won bronze as part of the 100 metre freestyle relay in the Edinburgh games four years previous, but cites the 1990 medal as his first great sporting moment.

Success followed rapidly, and in the next few years Foster broke the World Short Course freestyle record four times, the World Short Course butterfly record twice, and set the World Long Course butterfly record (in 1996) with a time of 24.07 seconds.

Foster trained at The Race Club, a Florida swim camp founded by Olympic Swimmers Gary Hall, Jr. and his father, Gary Hall, Sr. The Race Club, originally known as "The World Team," was designed to serve as a training group for elite swimmers across the world in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. To be able to train with the Race Club, one must either have been ranked in the top 20 in the world the past 3 calendar years or top 3 in their nation in the past year. The Race Club included such well known swimmers as Foster, Roland Mark Schoeman, Ryk Neethling, and Therese Alshammar.

Despite success at Commonwealth, European and World championship level mostly at short courses, Olympic titles eluded him and he has never won a medal. Some have suggested that he has never quite achieved his full potential, arguing his maverick approach to training and preparation cost him an individual Olympic medal, as long course events are more challenging and require more disciplined training approach for success.

In 2004, Foster was to face the disappointment of not being selected for the Olympic Games. At the British Olympic Trials, he won the 50 free in 22.49 seconds, well under the Olympic qualifying standard but seven hundredths of a second below the standard National Team Director Bill Sweetenham had set for inclusion in the British Olympic Team. Foster has openly criticised Sweetenham's management style and Sweetenham ensured that he was not selected.

Nonetheless he was to respond to his omission from the Olympic squad with a gold medal in the World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis later that year. In the 50 metre freestyle he achieved 21.58 seconds, ahead of Stefan Nystrand of Sweden. Although Foster announced his retirement from swimming after the European short course championships in April 2006 at the age of 35, he still occasionally competed that year at invitational meets.

He returned from "retirement" in 2007 with an aim to win an Olympic medal at the 2008 Olympic Games. Returning to the British squad he won a silver medal in the 50 m freestyle at the 2008 FINA Short Course World Championships, and qualified to represent Great Britain at the same distance in the Olympics. At the opening ceremony on 8 August, he carried the flag for Great Britain during the Parade of Nations. He failed to qualify for the men's 50 m freestyle semi-finals, finishing almost two-tenths of a second outside the top 16.