James Gibson born in Chelmsford, Essex, and raised in Witham, Gibson's specialism is breaststroke and he competed in the 50 metre, 100 metre and 200 metre events. In 2003 he became world champion at 50 metres (long-course). He was 6th in the 100 metre event at the Athens Olympics in 2004. A year earlier, at the 2003 Summer Universiade, he won titles in both the 50 m and 100 m breaststroke.

World champion James Gibson tells BBC East Midlands Today that he has returned to Loughborough as a coach with the aim of striking Olympic gold with British swimmers.The 33-year-old mentored France's Florent Manaudou to Olympic glory at London 2012, just three years after retiring from the sport himself because of a back injury.He has taken the helm as sprint coach at Loughborough, and inherited a stable that includes former European champion Francesca Halsall."It is an opportunity to come home and work with British athletes - that is what I'm passionate about," Gibson said."Winning Olympic gold was incredible. It was supposed to be the coaching Holy Grail that I achieved in three years."It is a bug, and I'm not going to finish with just one."

He became the British swimmers for 28 years to win an individual world championship gold in the long course pool when he claimed the 50m breaststroke title in Barcelona in 2003.