Becoming Great Britain's most successful Olympic swimmer for a century carries its own responsibilities and pressures, but Rebecca Adlington is unfazed by the weight of her status as she bids to inspire a younger generation.
The Mansfield-born athlete retired at the tender age of 23 in February last year with four Olympic medals to her name, two of which came in Beijing - making her the first British swimmer to win two Olympic golds since 1908.
After her success at the 2008 Games, the athlete was thrown into the spotlight and became the face of Team GB's swimmers heading into the London 2012 Olympics, where she sealed two bronze medals.
As Adlington's profile as a role model rose, she could have been forgiven for succumbing to the pressure, but the 25-year-old has told Sports Mole that it has never played on her mind.
"I think it's a strange one - it's not something that you think of or even I think of now to be honest because it's you that's doing it. I don't go about my day thinking 'oh I must be a good role model'. I just love the sport so I'm happy to promote it and talk about it," said Adlington.
© Getty Images
"You never know about [becoming a household name] until it happens to you. I didn't expect anything to happen. After Beijing I didn't have a manager, I'd never even considered having any profile. I've never been one of those people that wanted to be famous, and you don't get into swimming to be famous. For me it was just a case of, 'oh god, what do I do?'. It was more overwhelming and then I just had to try to get used to it. It was still a bit like, 'why do people want to come up and talk to me?' or have a photo, I just didn't really ever expect it to happen. I certainly didn't expect it to happen to myself, so it just took a bit of getting used to, but at the same time it's not like I'm Madonna!
"It's really nice, especially being from the world of sport and the Olympics as well. No matter who you are, you love watching the Olympics and people always say, 'I don't care about sport, but I love the Olympics!'. It's great because you get to meet such a variety of people and it's amazing how everyone is so friendly, and everyone wants to chat and find out about it. I think it's because not everyone gets the chance to be at an Olympics so people want to know about it. It's been good so far!"
Any career has its highs and lows, but Adlington, who failed to medal in her favourite 800m freestyle event in the Rome World Aquatics Championships in 2009, as well as the European Swimming Championships in Budapest a year later, has insisted that she would not change a thing.
© Getty Images
"I think even the bad stuff that happens, even when you don't perform as well as you wanted to - they're the things that you learn from and make you stronger, and have made me more determined to succeed. I think everything happens for a reason and you definitely learn from it. You probably learn more from bad experiences than you do the good ones. I definitely wouldn't [change anything] as I think that everything has got me to where I am today," she added.
More than one year on from her retirement, Adlington, who was a contestant on ITV reality show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! last year, is still very much involved in sport, with a particular focus on teaching children how to swim.
"My life is still very much swimming - more so now in one sense because I've got my own 'learn to swim' business, so that's my job. I also mentor some of the elite younger athletes that are coming through - between 16 and 18. I then do some punditry and commentary for the swimming as well, including the World Championships, so I'm still very, very much involved in the sport," said Adlington.
"I think, for me, I want to inspire people to get involved in the sport in whatever capacity - whether it's learning to swim or at an elite level. It's something that I feel so strongly about. I'm happy to talk about the sport, I'm very honest and open about the sport in general and I'll always pass on my advice and everything else like that.
© Getty Images
"It's one of the smaller sports - it's not on TV all the time. Most people know what footballers do, but swimming is one of those sports that people don't understand what goes into it at an elite level. I'm always wanting to talk about it more to raise the profile and just inspire, especially kids.
"To me it's so important just for water safety. It baffles me when I hear statistics of how many kids can't swim because I'm thinking, 'we live on an island!'. It's the only sport that is a life skill - it's so much bigger than, 'do that so you can get an Olympic medal'. If I could save someone's life, that would mean 10 times more than going to the Olympics. That's probably why I'm more passionate about the young ones, just because it has got that life skill element."
While Adlington has spent a lot of her time since retiring trying to help youngsters get into the pool, the swimmer believes that schools up and down the country, as well as parents, need to play a vital role in teaching children.
© Getty Images
"Some parents think that it's the schools' responsibility and schools think it's the parents' responsibility. There needs to be a balance - the schools should do it, but then the parents should take them as well. For us growing up, I've got two older sisters, it was a thing that we did as a family - like a family day out, we all went to the pool and I absolutely loved it! I didn't have a massive amount of school swimming. We went for school swimming for a term when I was younger, but I didn't have school galas or anything else that you get at some schools.
"Some schools are brilliant - they really take it on and some are lucky enough to have pools near them etc, it's just not broad across the country. I think it would be nice to see it come into play as a national standard across all schools in Britain, that they have to have school swimming because it's a life skill.
"I think 'why am I sat in PE playing dodgeball or something that I've never played since school?'. Yes, it's fun, but I haven't used it for the rest of my life, whereas why not do school swimming or try and accommodate it as much as possible? It's something that you will use for the rest of your life and it's much bigger than anything else - you can save a life."
Rebecca was talking from the Basildon Sporting Village where she joined Fit For Sport and Everyone Active to deliver a Legacy School Games Day of activities to 1,000 local primary school children. For more info, please go to: www.everyoneactive.com
