BUDDING Olympic swimmer, Oscar Harvey-Sullivan had a day to remember recently when he met his Olympic swimming hero, Alex Cohoon.

Oscar (11) from Fairford has his sights set on being an Olympic swimmer of the future and has enthusiastically followed the successful rise to swimming stardom of Alex Cohoon (21), who represented Great Britain in the Paris Olympics last month.

Alex, also from Fairford, kindly invited Oscar and mum, Clare, to a barbecue that Alex and his family had arranged to thank everyone that had supported him on his Olympic journey.

It was a dream come true for Oscar being able to chat to Alex about his training schedule and get some valuable advice on what next to do to further his desire of becoming an Olympian.

Currently Oscar swims for Swindon Amateur Swimming Club and trains five times a week for seven hours plus an extra 45 minutes’ land training.

After being introduced to Alex’s former coach, Andy Osborne, Oscar will now embark on an extra 30 minutes’ skills training, which Andy thought would be of benefit to Oscar.

During their chat, it became evident that Alex and Oscar have a lot in common – not just swimming, but also rugby.

Oscar loves playing rugby and has played for Cirencester for several years. Alex explained that there was a point where he’d wanted to be a rugby player.

He said: “But then winning my first gold medal and earning a place in Loughborough University’s swimming programme made me decide to concentrate on swimming.”

Oscar loves freestyle – in particular the 50m and 100m, where he has won gold at Level 1 swimming galas.

Alex also excels in the 50m and 100m freestyle swimming and represented Great Britain in Paris in the Men’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay and the Men’s Individual 50m Freestyle.

“Oscar’s competitive spirit is incredibly strong, but he is also autistic,” confided mum Clare.

“With autism comes some difficulty with coordination. But Oscar is relentless when faced with something new and will not stop until he masters it.

"This drive has served him well in swimming!”