I’VE been a swimmer ever since I can remember, but wanted to join a club in 2012. I came home from a holiday in Cornwall and the 2012 London Olympics were on. Watching that made me want to join a swimming club. We applied for a place with Torfaen Dolphins Performance Squad, Pontypool and got in there.

The Torfaen Dolphins encouraged us to compete from the start. I noticed that I was quick during the arena league.I think my first ever meet was 2013, on Newport’s short course. I built on that, competing as often as possible including the Welsh Nationals.

In September last year I was classified as S14 and selected for the Welsh para swim development squad. Alex Rosser, who also swims with Torfaen Dolphins, first mentioned classification to me, explaining what it is, which is an intellectual disability.

It affects my speed of processing, reaction time, stroke rate. It’s not an intelligence issue, it’s a processing issue.

To be classified as a S14 you are assessed by an education psychologist. It is a two stage process and I am waiting for the GB squad to sort out the international classification.

My first para swim meet was in Manchester, December 2017, which was the National Para-Swimming Championships. I was competing as a junior representing Torfaen and won three golds and a silver.

This September, I competed for the first time as a senior at the British Nationals in Sheffield. I think I was the second fastest qualifier.

I noticed when I swum in the seniors that the competition was much better. I was racing against the world record holder and established Great Britain squad members. In the junior meets, I was at the top, but in the seniors I was new.

I was hoping to get those medals. I was going over it in my head, thinking ‘I’m going to come in to this meet and get some medals.’ It didn’t come as a shock. I was pleased with my performance. I was still nervous before the meet though.

I was selected for the Welsh para swim Elite Development squad this September, and the Great Britain squad development squad. Selection for the GB squad was a bit of a surprise, my granddad picked me up from college and was taking me to training. We got to the leisure centre car park, and my dad was there – he had left work early. He came up to me and said: ‘Dylan, I just got this email, you’re in the Great Britain squad.’

It didn’t really sink in right then. I just went ‘Really?’ and went into training, and then after training I was so tired that I just came home and slept. When I woke up, it hit me that I was in the GB squad. I was happy and really enthusiastic about it.

The support you get in the GB squad is tremendous. It all starts at the end of November, that’s the first time I’m going to meet with the GB squad up in Manchester.

I’m going to have to start logging all my training, my nutrition, and will get access to physios that I wouldn’t have got previously. Because I’m in the Welsh para swim elite development squad, I’ve got a chance to go to Thailand to train for a week in December with the full welsh squad.

My training has already stepped up massively.

I swim nine times a week, with two sessions of land training. I think it works out at about 14 hours in the pool and two to four hours in the gym.

I think I’m balancing everything quite well so far. I train twice a day, five days a week. I have Wednesdays off at college, which helps a lot. I can catch up with all my college work on Wednesdays. On the weekends I make sure that I have time to take care of myself. When the galas are on or there is welsh training camp it can be a seven-day training week.

My daily routine would generally be waking up at 5.30am and go to the pool for 5.45am. I do some stretching and mobility work before getting in the pool at 6 am for an hour and a half training. I go home, catch the bus to college, finishing around 4.30. On Mondays for example, I catch the bus back home from college, relax and make sure I get some rest, and eat plenty before I train again at 6.30pm, finishing at 8.30pm. I have some food when I back from training and go to bed at 9pm.

This year, I would like to qualify for the World Championships in Malaysia. In two years’ time there’s the Tokyo Paralympics, which I will really be keen on going to and then there’s the Commonwealth Games two years after that. There are many meets for me to look forward too.

I think Berlin in June this year was my proudest achievement so far. When I was in Berlin I won three golds, a silver and two bronze medals. They were junior medals, but they were against the world class youth competition. Swimmers from all sorts of countries were there.

I felt proud to win those medals. I wasn’t at my best either, because I had Sheffield para swim world series event the week before, had training during the week, and then flew to Berlin - I had no rest. I was really proud of those medals.

I met some awesome people from around the world and some have swam in the Olympics. Everyone’s really friendly, but there is that competitiveness. It’s really sportsmanlike. After you swim you shake hands, and say well done.

Waiting for my international classification to come through has been quite frustrating. I broke the British and European record, for example, but I can’t claim the European record as I am not internationally classified, and we are still waiting for verification for the British record, even though I beat it by a second and a half.

When I broke it, it was in Newport in April time. I was in hard training, I had just come back from Berlin and there was this short course competition in Newport and I said to my coach: ‘Look at this 200m freestyle record. I reckon I could beat it.’ My coach agreed that he thought I could do it too. He got all the officials ready for it and made sure I was ready for it. I wasn’t nervous at all, I was ready for it. I didn’t know that I broke it at first. I went to my coach and he said that I didn’t beat the world record but I had beaten the European one.

All the coaches at Torfaen Dolphins Performance Squad are really supportive to me and everyone in the club and I’m really thankful for that. Alex Rosser has helped me as well, making sure I do everything right. He’s been a bit of a role model for me. He went to the Commonwealth Games this year representing Wales.

The whole Torfaen Dolphins set-up is really professional, for such a small club, we’ve got 12 swimmers in the Welsh squad. We are the third most successful club in Wales, behind Cardiff and Swansea. The coaches make every set tough but enjoyable and I have improved as a result.

The support I get from the Mic Morris Trust and the Torfaen development scheme is really helpful. £500 grant from the Mic Morris Trust helps with the travel and accommodation, and competition trunks are £250.

Getting free gym membership across Torfaen from the Torfaen development scheme really helps me and young athletes in the area.