Mew was born in
Newport, Isle of Wight, and started swimming at West Wight Swimming Club; at 17 he moved to the High Performance Center, then located at the University of Bath. Before he moved Mew competed in three successive
European Junior Swimming Championships –
1995 in
Geneva,
Switzerland,
1996 in
Copenhagen,
Denmark and
1997 in
Glasgow,
United Kingdom, winning three medals in total. During this time he also broke the 50, 100 and 200 metre breaststroke long course and 50 and 100 metre breaststroke short course junior British records. Within six months of his last Junior European Swimming Championships he made his senior debut at the
1998 World Aquatics Championships in
Perth,
Australia. Later that year he won two medals at the
1998 Commonwealth Games in
Kuala Lumpur including a bronze in the 100 m breaststroke. Mew trained at
The Race Club, a summer 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. Mew has swum in two Olympic finals, the
medley relay at the
2000 Summer Olympics and the
100 m breaststroke at the
2004 Summer Olympics. Mew ripped the sheafing that keeps the
ulnar nerve in place in his left elbow three months before the Athens Olympics leaving him with limited strength in his left arm; this was operated on shortly after he competed at the Games. He has won two medals at the
FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m), four medals at
Commonwealth Games six medals at the
European Short Course Swimming Championships, and one medal at the
2007 Summer Universiade. He has broken multiple English, British, and Commonwealth records, and in April 2004 set the fourth fastest 100 metre breaststroke time in world history. From 1997 over the next ten years he had a world ranking inside the top ten in the world in either short course or long course breaststroke swimming. At the ASA National British Championships he won the
50 metres breaststroke title five times (1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006) and the
100 metres breaststroke title six times (1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006). ==Charity work==