Keri-Anne Payne

Keri-Anne Payne was born in South Africa but competes as a British swimmer in the gruelling 10km Open Water event. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics she won a silver medal and at the 2009 World Championships in Rome she went one better in becoming the World Champion.

How did you get into your sport?

My older brother and sister both swam so it was just a case of me always being at the pool.

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Tell us the best thing about your sport?

Meeting all the people I do when I travel around the world.

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Who is your biggest inspiration in your sport?

My biggest inspiration has always been my brother; in my sport I would have to say Steve Parry

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Do you admire anybody outside of your own sport?

I think the GB cycling team has done such a great job of becoming and staying the best team in the whole world at what they do.

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Who is the best player you’ve played with/against?

In swimming it has to be Rebecca Adlington.

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Do you have any pre-match rituals or superstitions?

No, not really, the biggest change for me over the last 4 years is that I now wear goggles when I race - which took some getting use to.

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Tell us about your training schedule?

What does it involve and how does it change, i.e. before matches etc? Well I train 10 times a week. In the pool each session is 2 hours so that’s a total of 20 hours a week in the pool and about 3-4 hours of land work on top of that. When we get closer to a major meet our volume goes down so we are rested and ready to race quick.

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Who is the swimmer at your club/who’ve swam with?

Cassie Patten is the funniest, she’s been at Stockport for about 3 years and nearly every time we go away we share with each other and we have had some really strange but very funny trips.

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What is the most memorable moment in your sporting career to date?

My most memorable has to be winning silver in Beijing but a memory that will always stick with me is having to swim through thousands of jelly fish during the World Champs in 2007.

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What are do you want to achieve next in your sport? What are your goals?

This year to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and try to defend my World title in Open Water, but my goal is to make the London 2012 team.

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If you hadn’t of been a swimmer what would you have been?

I have no idea!! I have been swimming since I was 4 so I don’t really know anything else!!

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What will Keri-Anne Payne do after her sporting career is over?

I would love to get into the wonderful world of “Media” I don’t know what just yet but that is the area I would like to go into after swimming.

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What music (if any) do you listen to when training?

Unfortunately we can’t listen to music during training but when we’re in the gym it’s usually dance tracks to get us pumped up!

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What do you do on a day off/in your spare time?

Try to visit my family, do some shopping or go to the cinema.

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If you had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it?

This is going to be really cliche but I’d spend it with my family, boyfriend and dog

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What is your favourite film?

The Count of Monte Cristo.

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Do you get any strange fan mail?

Not strange but amazing – a letter somehow got to my house addressed “Keri-Anne Payne Olympic Swimmer” and it was from a little girl who was 8 telling me how much she loved swimming and looked up to me, (her parents didn’t know she sent it!!) So I rang her and sent her some signed pictures.

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What is the funniest thing you’ve read/heard about yourself in the media?

It’s always funny to see how people spell my name I’ve had Cerrie-anne, Carry-anne, Kerry-anne never spelt right (no pressure!)

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Tell us a joke about your sport?

Q: What race is never run?� A: A swimming race.

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