2009 At the
European University Sports Association (EUSA) Championships Swann won a gold medal in the women's pair and a silver medal in the women's eight. She won gold in the 'Under 23 quadruple sculls' at Amsterdam International Regatta in June.
2011 Swann was a member of the women's eight at the 2011
European Rowing Championships at
Plovdiv,
Bulgaria, where they finished fourth.
2012 Swann and Jo Cook finished fourth in the women's pairs at the GB Rowing Team Senior Trials at Eton Dorney in March.
2013 Teamed with
Helen Glover in the women's coxless pair under the tutelage of
Robin Williams, Swann completed a clean sweep of three victories at the
World Rowing Cup, winning gold at
Penrith Lakes, Australia in March;
Eton Dorney, London in June; and
Lucerne Rotsee in July. In July 2013, at the
Henley Royal Regatta she teamed up with
Victoria Meyer-Laker,
Frances Houghton and Helen Glover to win the
Princess Grace Challenge Cup for women's
quadruple scull. Competing as
Leander Club and
Minerva Bath Rowing Club they completed the final course in 6 minutes 59 seconds. On 31 August, teamed with Helen Glover in the women's coxless pair, she became the world champion at the
2013 World Rowing Championships at
Chungju in the
Republic of Korea. They completed the final in 7 mins 22.82 secs, finishing ahead of
Roxana Cogianu and
Nicoleta Albu of Romania, and having overhauled the American boat which had led briefly in the early stages. In December 2013 Glover and Swann were voted as 'Team of the Year' by the
SportsSister organisation, additionally Glover won the 'Readers Choice' vote. Glover and Swann also received the chairman's award from the
Sports Journalists' Association (SJA).
2014 On 19 April 2014 Swann was teamed with
Jessica Eddie for the women's pair at the British rowing trials at Caversham, where they finished 1.14 seconds behind Helen Glover and Heather Stanning. In May, Swann was selected to partner Helen Glover in the women's coxless pair at the
European Rowing Championships at
Ada Ciganlija,
Belgrade on 30 May. In the heat they set a new European best time of 7 minutes 9 seconds, and in the final on 1 June they lowered it to 7 minutes 3.62 seconds, finishing 5 seconds ahead of the reigning European champion
Cristina Grigoras and
Laura Oprea of Romania.
2016 She won a silver medal in the
women's eight at the
2016 Summer Olympics.
2019 Having taken time away from rowing to complete her medical studies at the
University of Edinburgh, Swann returned to international competition after being selected in the W4- for the
Poznań World Cup in June 2019. At the
2019 World Rowing Championships in
Ottensheim, Austria, her team won the "B" final of the coxless 4 (W4-) and qualified for the
2020 Olympics.
2020 During the
coronavirus pandemic Swann took a break from rowing to work as a Junior Doctor at
St John's Hospital, Livingston.
2021 At the
2021 European Rowing Championships in
Varese, Italy, she won the gold medal in the coxless pair (W2-) teamed with Helen Glover. They completed the final in 7 mins 2.73 seconds, eventually overhauling the
Romanian crew of
Adriana Ailincai and
Iuliana Buhus by 0.29 seconds. In June 2021, Glover and Swann were named as the women's pair for the
Summer Olympics in Tokyo, making Glover the first mother to row for Britain. On 28 July they qualified for the
A Final by finishing second in their semi-final. In the final on 29 July they finished in fourth position, completing in 6 minutes 54.96 seconds, which was 4.77 seconds behind the
Gold medalists,
Grace Prendergast and
Kerri Gowler of New Zealand and 2.86 seconds behind the bronze medalists
Caileigh Filmer and
Hillary Janssens of Canada. Afterwards Glover said
"The reward is knowing that we crossed the line giving it our all. The frustration would have been coming away from thinking we had more and we didn’t." ==See also==