At 22 years of age, Keri-Anne Payne already knows what it’s like to be at the top of her profession. Her switch from indoor to open water swimming resulted in her earning silver in the 10k open water swim in Beijing. Here Keri explains her journey to becoming an Olympic medallist and admits that it’s not always smooth waters.

How I got started in swimming

I started swimming when I was about four years old. I just followed my brother who is nine years older than me. He was swimming, so I just wanted to do what he was doing and I followed him around everywhere.

When I first realised I had a talent:

I suppose my parents and coaches noticed it before I did. I just knew that I always enjoyed doing it, and I always wanted to do it. When I got to be a young teenager when most people tend to drop out of swimming because they got into other things, I was still enjoying it and I persisted and just carried on with what I was doing. I think that’s quite a big part of swimming: it’s always the people that persist and that carry on that tend to do better at it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Related features:

Event review: The British Gas Great London Swim

Open water swimming with Keri-Anne Payne

……………………………………………………………………………………………


……………………………………………………………………………………………

The most difficult time in my career:

My lowest was 2006 just after the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. I had a really bad couple of years with the 800, and I didn’t enjoy it anymore at all, so my coach and I sat down and decided we were going to change events. It was the best decision we ever made.

Switching to open water was easy:

When I was a kid in South Africa there was always a massive influence on open water because it’s so much warmer. We were doing an open water swim every couple weekends each month. So I think because of that background I find it quite easy to move from one to the next.

I enjoy the pain:

If there’s a hard session going on and I’m thinking I’m really tired, I just have to push on because I know I’m going to get benefit out of it and I enjoy the pain. Pushing barriers is what swimming and what sport is all about. If you keep pushing them, then hopefully things can only go one way and that’s for the better.

To become faster for your sport, download the adidas miCoach app and run in Supernova trainers. Visit facebook.com/adidasrunning to find out more.

Caitlin Ritchie, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine