The 32-year-old Welshman, who has cerebral palsy, is one of Britain's greatest ever swimmers but was not nominated to the ParalympicsGB team after illness and injury affected his form.

Roberts missed the first stage of the Paralympic trials in London and then failed to make the qualifying times in Sheffield later in the year and he therefore was not named as part of the 16-strong team for London 2012 when it was announced in April.

He immediately launched an appeal which was successful in making British Swimming reconsider their decision due to his fitness and medical issues.

But a review by national performance director John Atkinson has concluded that the original decision will stand.

"After a robust and independent appeals process, British Swimming followed the recommendations of the independent Appeals Committee and after receiving an independent medical report, we believe Dave has not met the standards set out for selection to the Paralympics Games," said British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes.

"Obviously we are sorry that Dave will not be there and we all wish him well for the future.

"I am sure that he, along with all of us, wishes the whole Paralympic team good luck for the Games."

Roberts however, admits he is still struggling to come to terms with the news.


If he had competed in London and added one more medal to his total, which also includes four silver and a bronze, it would have taken him past Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson's Welsh record.

"I'm totally at a loss," he said.

"It's awful to think that I'll never be able to compete in the Paralympics in Britain, my home nation.

"I fought for the opportunity to be reconsidered tooth and nail, but after months of waiting and hoping, it wasn't enough.

"I'm still not going to compete as part of the team that I've trained with for 14 years."

Concerns over Roberts' health began in March when he missed the first set of British Paralympic trials in March at the Aquatics Centre on the Olympic Park in Stratford but the situation took a major turn for the worse when an ill Roberts failed to make the times for the 50 and 100 metre freestyle events at the second trials in Sheffield in April.

Roberts has struggled with illness and injury over the past three years, including a bout of pneumonia earlier this year, but even though British Swimming was still able to nominate him for ParalympicsGB, they decided not to.

The swimmer added that despite the monumental blow of missing out on London 2012, he will not be retiring from the sport.

"Despite not being able to compete in the event that I've been gearing up to for years, this won't necessarily be the end for me," he said.

"I'm still at the top of my game, I feel that I still have medal potential and I will continue to train."

Roberts burst onto the international scene at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics by winning three Paralympic gold medals before he followed it up by winning four gold medals at Athens 2004 and four gold medals again at Beijing 2008.

Roberts also has eight world titles in his glittering medal collection.

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