Double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington talks to Sportsister about life for her as a teenager, balancing swimming with school and keeping motivated.

I started swimming at Sherwood Baths when I was nine, I would go a couple of times a week. I then made it on to Nova (Nova Centurion Swimming Club is the competitive outlet of the Nottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad) and began to swim every day. When I was twelve I started doing the mornings as well as evenings and really stepped it up.

When I was 14 I went to the Youth Olympics and ended up winning two silver medals, which I just couldn’t believe! So after that I thought “Yeah, I can make a proper go of this!” and just really wanted to do it ever since.

It has been hard at times balancing being a ‘normal teenager’ with being a serious athlete. When I was younger I had my group of friends that I went swimming with. We had such a close group – that was just brilliant. It wasn’t until I got to 15 or 16 that I found it really hard. At that age your friends aren’t interested in going to the cinema anymore, they want to go out and do other stuff which I didn’t really want to do. So that was the hardest point for me.

Fitting my studying in was a challenge. Because we trained 45 minutes away, I had to do some of my work in the car going to and from the pool. Luckily I had two older sisters who’d been through it so they really helped me out if I wanted a hand with anything. I just had to fit it into the weekends or wherever possible.

If I wasn’t swimming I think I would have been at Uni now. if I wasn’t swimming. Because, I mean I’m only 20 so I would’ve liked to do that. I think I would like to go back and study at some later stage. But right now, with swimming – it’s all going off. There’s a bit too much demand on my time to do that. But maybe when I finish swimming I’ll get a qualification.

You can get so much out of sport. I think people have this idea about sportswomen which isn’t really true. I’ve made some absolutely brilliant friends and been to some amazing places. It’s taught me a lot about responsibility and discipline.

If you really love something that never dies and it never goes away. And that’s what it’s like with swimming…I genuinely love the sport whether I’m competing or not. Whatever I’m doing I’ll still love the sport, it’s such a great thing to be part of.

My favourite memory from my teenage years was going to the European Juniors. That year was a brilliant year for me because I got a gold medal in 800 freestyle. Plus I got invited to go out to the Olympic Holding Camp in 2004. The team went to Cyprus, and I got asked to go out there. Me and Kerri-Ann Payne went out to train alongside Becky Cooke who was competing. At the time I had just turned 15 I think, so it was a brilliant opportunity for me. It really helped me a lot, especially when I went to Beijing. It helped me understand about the Olympics and how other athletes train. You learn a lot from other athletes when you see them compete.

If other girls are starting to train quite seriously and finding the balance hard between being a teenager and being a competitive sportswoman then I would say if you genuinely love doing it, then you must carry on. I definitely think making friends is the most important thing because if you go to a team where your friends are you’re more likely to stick at it.

I am fortunate to have a good coach who knows and supports me. If you have that support I think you’ll be ok. You’ve got to keep at it because you may get times where you think you’re not improving but you just need time. Everybody goes through that patch. I had two years without getting a Personal Best but you change so much as a woman through that time, people kind of forget that.

Crazy as it sounds, my favourite training sessions are the hard ones. We do a long course at Loughborough on a Wednesday night. Even though you’re so tired and you’ve worked so hard it makes you feel really good.

Louise Hudson, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

Rebecca Adlington is sponsored by Speedo for information about her or to get your hands on speedo product head to www.speedo.com