I Will Learn From My Mistakes, Says Rebecca Adlington.

Rebecca Adlington will be spending much of the next few days beside a swimming pool in Crete amongst other tourists lapping up the holiday sun and reminding herself that this time last year she was winning her second Olympic gold medal in Beijing, and smashing a 19-year-old world record in the process in the women's 800 metres freestyle.

The Speedo LZR racesuit will be discarded in favour of a bikini, and there will be no attempt at a world record. "If I go in the pool at all I'll pretend to be a bad swimmer and just do a few breast strokes with my head sticking out of the water," she admits. "And as I'm still afraid of the sea I won't be going any further than up to my knees there either."  

Although she received a congratulatory text from her Mum last week to mark the anniversary of her first gold medal in the Water Cube, the 400 metres freestyle, it is a subject she intends to leave behind her as she shares some quality time with her boyfriend, Andy, and plots what will now be seen as her intended comeback next year in the European Championships and Commonwealth Games. This follows the abject disappointment of the world championships in Rome a fortnight ago which saw the double Olympic champion finish third in the 400 metres, and a calamitous fourth in the 800 metres some three seconds slower than her Beijing world record, the latter result producing a flood of tears on TV immediately afterwards.

"I was devastated," she accepts. "I wanted to achieve so much more, I knew I could do better than that, and I expected it as well. I was, and still am, so disappointed with myself. It really hurt at the time, and it really hurts now. The difference is, two weeks on, I've finally had time to sit back and reflect for the first time since Beijing. It's been a complete rollercoaster up until now, which is one of the main reasons why it went wrong in Rome. It's been very hard and I've been very tired. But I recognise my mistakes, I now know what I need to do, and I am totally confident that I will bounce back better, stronger and faster as a result of what happened in the world championships. I learnt more from this summer than I did from the Olympics, and after the London 2012 Games I hope I'll be able to say Rome did me a big favour."

She had just provided some foot and hand print casts commissioned by the National Lottery to honour UK Olympic and Paralympic competitors and was in a bullish, if confessional mood. The easy excuse would be to fall behind the controversial swimsuit issue, especially as Adlington insisted on sticking with her LZR knowing that the rival suits from Adidas, Arena and Jaked provided an advantage to her rivals. Adlington, who has a lucrative contract with Speedo, could still have switched to these better suits, but stuck with the LZR. "I like the suit, I've never tried the others on, and I know I wouldn't want to spend 20 minutes trying to put them on," she explains. "More important, I wanted to compare myself to where I was in Beijing, and I couldn't do that wearing a new suit. I'll never know whether it would have made a difference or not, and I never will as they've all been outlawed from the start of next year, but swimmers like Michael Phelps and Britain's Gemma Spofforth proved it's not all down to the suits because they broke world records in old suits. I'm not going to use the suits as an excuse. There were other reasons."

Firstly the pressure and burden of expectation. In the 400 metres final Adlington won a bronze medal behind her compatriot Jo Jackson and the winner, Italy's Federica Pellegrini, who became the first woman ever to break the four minute barrier. It was a personal best for the 20-year-old girl from Mansfield, and no mean achievement considering she came third from lane eight, but it was the fact that she qualified as the slowest in the final which did for her.

"I shot myself in the foot in the heats," Adlington reveals. "It was my first meaningful race since Beijing in terms of importance and being totally prepared, and I was aware of all the expectation on my shoulders. I'd never felt so much pressure in my life as I did before that race. It was different in Beijing. Nobody had heard of me, let alone expected anything from me. In Rome the outside world thought I would just turn up and smash world records. It got to me in the heats and I lost all rhythmn in the swim. I was pretty upset with myself but at least I could relax in lane eight in the final. The problem, though, is that you can't see what your rivals are doing until they are quite a bit ahead of you. Before then it's all just one big splash."

A bronze medal, and a best time by two seconds is hardly a disaster, even if more was expected, but not even making the podium in the 800 metres was a big shock for a girl who was supposedly dominant in this distance. "I knew I was in trouble even in the heats when I struggled," she admits. "In the final I got to halfway and thought to myself: "God, I'm finding this really hard." I just didn't expect it to be so tough. When I saw Jo (Jackson) go past me I knew I didn't have much left. Finishing fourth was bad enough but the time was the final straw. I was three seconds slower than I was in Beijing and that was rubbish. I'd let myself down and that's why I was so upset."

It was, in hindsight, an accident waiting to happen. After Beijing Adlington had been transformed from her self-styled "Miss Nobody" into a national treasure and although, on the surface, she appeared to be lapping up all the adulation and new-found fame, the TV shows, awards functions and speeches, in truth she was finding it all difficult to handle. "I'm not complaining because it was my choice and who wouldn't want the chance to do some of the things I did after Beijing," she says. "But half the time I didn't know what to do or say at all these events. Quite clearly many of the A-list celebrities had no idea who or what I was and I spent much of my time asking myself why I was even there. It was a bit of a front if I'm honest. I felt uncomfortable and, ironically for a swimmer, out of my depth."
This soon shifted into her private life as well. "Please don't get me wrong," she pleads. "It's been so nice that people have wanted to congratulate me and been so supportive, but it's not so great when it happens as you're in the middle of eating a meal with your boyfriend or parents, or you're down the supermarket enjoying some downtime. This is when I'd like to return to being Miss Nobody from Mansfield.

"I think all this, and all the media interest, plus moving from my parents' house to a flat in Nottingham, and the fact that one year on my body and mind was changing, all had an impact on my training and, ultimately, in Rome. Looking back I now realise that I just didn't put in the time I needed to if I wanted to stay the best in the world in the 800 metres. I didn't swim the lengths I should have done, and often my training was affected because I'd be so tired from all my out-of-swimming activities. I'd then grow angry and frustrated duting training, which hardly helped, and it's only now, when I've finally had time to reflect, that I recognise all this."

So what happens now? It helps that all swimsuits will be from above the knees and 100% textile from January, a regulation Adlington is happy about. "I don't think you'll find any swimmer disappointed with this ruling because it means we can all get on with the sport and not concern ourselves with what we're wearing,"  she says. "But my problems were self-inflicted. I'm going to start saying "no" now to a lot of things and make absolutely sure my training is as it should be. I'm going to put in the required time, and the required number of lengths. And I'm going to use the experience of Rome to my advantage. If I didn't think there was a lot more to come from me I'd pack up now and bask in the glory of Beijing. I said before the world championships that I was still inexperienced as an international competitor, and I guess I showed it. I'm pleased I'm still hurting and I'd be worried if I wasn't. Now I intend to never feel as bad again for the rest of my swimming career."

It all starts on the morning of Tuesday, September 1st, when Rebecca Adlington begins the first training session of the rest of her life. The lady has plans and as she sits beside a Cretan pool today, on the first anniversary of her epic, record-breaking swim at the Olympic Games, she is looking forward to the future, and not back in the past.

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