Tom Dean didn’t just defeat his fellow finalists to win the 200m freestyle — he also beat COVID twice.

The 21-year-old led home a British one-two this morning, winning the gold ahead of fellow countryman Duncan Scott, with Brazilian Fernando Scheffer picking up the bronze.

Dean, the first Briton to win the event for 113 years, first contracted coronavirus in September last year and was again forced into isolation when he was struck down more seriously in January, putting his spot at the Olympics in serious doubt.

And he admitted a gold medal felt like it was “a million miles away” when he was laid low for the second time.

“It's amazing, a dream come true having a gold around my neck,” Dean said.

“'I contracted COVID twice in the last 12 months, six or seven weeks out during an Olympic year, which is essentially unheard of. I had it in September and then the New Year. The first time was not too bad but the second time I was really ill. It was quite severe.

“I did the full isolation period so two or three months out from our Olympic trials in April, I'm stuck inside, unable to even exercise inside my own flat. When I was sitting in my flat during Olympic year, an Olympic gold seemed a million miles off.”

Dean, whose time of 1 minute 44.22 seconds broke the British record, had to take time to recuperate before he could jump back in to his high-intensity training.

“It was tough having a long time out of the water and it obviously requires a slow build-up because of the nature of the disease you can’t go straight back into full training,” he said. “It was a very bumpy ride.

“It wasn’t life-threatening ... But when you do a sport that requires so heavily on your cardiovascular system, the disease is affecting your lungs, you're coughing and all that kind of stuff, you're a little bit worried about how you’re going to build back up.

• Day 4 live blog of all the Tokyo Games action
• WA athletes in action on Day 4
• What’s on Tokyo Olympics today

“I think I was one of the first athletes in any British Olympic sport to contract COVID twice in such a short space of time, so there were quite a few question marks around it.”

Silver medallist Scott said he was delighted for his teammate after he endured such a tough time.

“I’m buzzing for Deano. He’s had a really strange 18 months with COVID twice and a monster PB at trials. But to see him move it on again and win gold is phenomenal,” he said.