 David Davies hopes his move will help his Olympic chances |
Welsh swimmer David Davies has left Wales in an attempt to boost his hopes of success at next year's Olympics. Barry-born Davies, 22, has moved from Cardiff to a training base in Loughborough as he aims to improve on his bronze medal at the Athens Games.
"It was a personal thing I had to do and hopefully it will improve my chances for next year because it's a massive year," said Davies.
"The whole British set-up is based around here (Loughborough)."
Davies was quick to point out that he has not turned his back on Wales and said it will still produce future stars.
 | I had great memories in Wales and I'm Welsh through and through |
"After 14 years, I was on auto pilot and I was going to training doing the same routines and the people around me were getting younger and younger.
"Loughborough is where I enjoy myself more and the training is still intense. The support I'm getting up here is going to take me on to the next level where I want to be next year.
"I had all my success from down in Wales and can't moan about it at all and never will.
"I have great memories from down there and I've got a high regard for the coaching set-up I had in Cardiff with Dave Haller and the national pool set up in Swansea.
"There is nothing wrong with it at all, it's just a personal decision I had to make."
He added: "I don't want to say to the Welsh people 'you're not good enough and I'm moving away'. It's just something I had to do.
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"I had great memories in Wales and I'm Welsh through and through."
Despite moving to the east Midlands a week ago, Davies will be spending much of his time this winter utilising British Swimming's Offshore Centre on the Gold Coast in Australia.
"I was lucky enough to get pre-selected for Beijing after the Melbourne World Championships in March, so basically I've got 10 months of real solid hard-graft work," he said.
"I'm going to Australia in a couple of weeks to get a good base done over there and then all the focus is going to be towards Beijing.
"It's going to be the fastest and most exciting swimming you will ever see in the world and I've got to be at the very top of my game to be up there with the guys.
"It's going to be really tough just to get into the final this time.
"It's going to be a lot harder than Athens. Swimming has moved on massively in every single event."
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