When it comes to athletes finding balance, Simone Biles strutting her stuff on the beam or Lionel Messi weaving his way through a sea of opposition defenders may be the first scenarios that spring to mind. However, for Paralympic, world and European swimming champion Alice Tai MBE, achieving equilibrium goes beyond clearing enough space on her shelves for her plethora of international accolades.
Born in Poole and now excelling in the pool, the 24-year-old is a virtuoso when it comes to overcoming adversity with a smile on her face, having suffered from a condition called bilateral talipes - also known as clubfoot - since birth, leading to the amputation of her right leg below the knee in January 2022 after she began to experience worsening pain.
Prior to going under the knife, Tai - a neuroscience student - had already made waves (pardon the pun) on the continental and international stages. As of July 2023, her medal haul from Paralympic Games, World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games stands at a staggering 24 - including 16 golds - and a host of Para world records to boot.
For Tai, the early starts, fine-tuned diet plans and daily supplements are part and parcel of being a world-renowned athlete, but the 24-year-old is also a firm advocate for letting her hair down outside the arena in order to find her holistic happiness - a balance she also recommends for those who cannot share her badges of honour.
"I'm such a huge believer in having a well-rounded balance in your life, whether it be just activities and having a good sense of seriousness but also fun or whether it be what you're consuming and putting in your body, from diet to supplements and just making sure that holistically you're in the best place possible," Tai told Sports Mole in partnership with the In Bioglan Balance series.
"I found having someone like Bioglan who were really pushing for that balance and really encouraging people to have holistic wellbeing, I thought that was just great, because it's something that I've tried to push as an athlete, and I think it's just a super important thing for everyone to step back and look at how to live a better life and feel better about yourself.
"It's different for everyone, when it comes to finding balance especially with supplementation, everyone's going to have different tailored approaches to it depending on what they need and how they feel."
As much as an athlete's physical prowess is a prerequisite for national and international stardom, the mental aspect can sometimes be overlooked - a hot-button topic in swimming at the moment after household name Adam Peaty recently pulled out of the British Championships due to his own battles with "demons".
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From an outside view, it would be easy and perhaps naive to believe that Olympic and Paralympic champions can simply take one glance at their collection of awards and immediately turn a frown upside down. However, success comes at a cost for Tai and others - whether it be gruelling training camps or 4am wake-up calls - and the 24-year-old has admitted that such a taxing schedule can "wreck" even the most seasoned performers.
"With athletes, particularly with high-profile ones like Adam Peaty speaking up and being really transparent on the huge efforts mentally and physically we put in, it can really wreck you and mess you up a little bit," Tai added. "I think it's really important to look at athletes' wellbeing, and even though we've got gold medals and world records, from the outside looking in that looks incredible, that person's dreams have come true, it is exhausting.
"You're getting up at ridiculous hours and getting home late at night, you're pushing yourself to the physical limit every day and on the back of that you're also having to push yourself mentally, and it is really draining. I find that when athletes talk up about it and spread awareness, it doesn't just help the public's perception but it also helps other athletes to reach out and understand that what they're experiencing is normal. It's normal to feel exhausted at the end of a really physically and mentally draining week."
As well as being vocal about the physical and mental exertions that she puts herself through day in, day out, Tai also finds release in music - case in point below. An aficionado of the guitar and piano - although she would modestly not describe herself as a pianist - firing up the strings provided her with a welcome distraction from her lack of swimming while she recovered from her amputation.
"If when I had my amputation all I'd had was swimming, I would have struggled so much more, but I've really found that doing music helped me get through that time. I've always loved doing music, I find it really therapeutic when I come home," Tai said.
"I found that coming home and having that release and other thing in my life really helped, so when I had the amputation I wasn't going stir crazy because I couldn't swim, it was upsetting but I had other things in my life that really helped me through that time. It was rough, but it was nice to be able to delve into other areas of my life that usually I wouldn't have time to."
Only six months after undergoing her life-changing procedure, Tai swapped the strings for the swimsuit once again - she would not miss the home Commonwealth Games for the world, especially considering her penchant for performing in front of the British faithful.
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A quick stopover in Dublin for the 2018 Europeans saw Tai travel home with four gold medals, before she won a scintillating seven titles at the 2019 Worlds in London. Not only that, but her first-ever world gold medal in the 2015 4×100 m medley 34pts - the same event she clinched Paralympic gold in during the Rio Games - was won in Glaswegian waters.
Being forced to miss the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games due to an elbow injury only spurred Tai on to reclaim her status as top dog, which she did in exhilarating fashion at the Commonwealth Games, taking the title in the women's 100m backstroke S8 and touching the wall four seconds before silver medallist Tupou Neiufi of New Zealand.
For Tai, showing off her gold medal atop the podium was the culmination of an unprecedented few hours of sporting success for British women. On the same day that Tai won her Commonwealth gold, England's Lionesses beat Germany in the Euro 2022 final, and the 24-year-old still finds the experience "baffling".
"My face has never hurt so much, I just couldn't stop grinning! We had to walk around the pool after the ceremony and my cheeks felt like they were shaking, I just couldn't stop smiling, it was so surreal," Tai said.
"It was just after the women had won the Euros and that was insane, I hadn't watched it but the whole crowd was absolutely buzzing because of it, I still can't believe it happened in front of the home crowd six months after my amputation. It baffles me every time I think about it!"
Whether it was Sarina Wiegman's Lionesses at Wembley or Tai at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, the Britons thrived under the pressure of delivering for their expectant supporters, and just like in women's football, Tai is overjoyed to see the crowd numbers in para-swimming grow at an exponential rate.
"With para sport in general, it's developed into something even bigger over the last few years since I started. When I first started swimming, it was still putting itself on the map, people like Ellie Simmonds were just becoming household names, and London 2012 really changed that," Tai explained.
"People started following the Paralympics, and I feel like coming to a home event and having a sold-out crowd now is something that 10 years ago was unheard of in para-swimming. It's so cool seeing how much the sport has grown and how much people want to come and watch, and to hear the thunderous cheer, obviously in the pool you're at the bottom so the sound accumulates and I wish everyone could hear it for what it is because it is absolutely insane!"
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Even when Tai was forced to give up her Tokyo 2020 Paralympic dreams - a setback she described as 'gutting' - she remained close to the action as a pundit, allowing her to view her sport from outside the competitive "bubble" that she was previously encased in.
Quickly becoming a recognisable figure in and outside of the pool, Tai recalled being stopped by members of the public in Leeds eager to speak to her about the Paralympics and GB's successes, which only inspires her more to continue chasing more medals and prove that the possibilities are "endless" for disabled people.
"I don't think I'll ever stop swimming to be honest. While I'm still competitive it seems like the obvious thing to do to keep pushing my own limits and see if I can keep winning and stay on the world stage," Tai added. "I enjoy it and also I've met people and had messages from people who have had club feet or similar disabilities, and watching me has given them the confidence to go out and accept themselves for who they are and also vice versa, that's made me more confident in myself, the insecurities they tell me about are ones that I've also faced and had faced when I got those messages.
"The Paralympics is more than just gold medals, it's about showing what people with disabilities can do, we don't have any limits or boundaries. The possibilities are endless, and that's encouraged me more to get back in the pool after all the surgery and just do my best.
"It's about inspiring other people and letting them know that whatever you face daily there are ways around it to adapt. That's probably one of the most important messages from the Paralympics."
While Tai quickly became accustomed to flaunting her medals in the arena, a few other esteemed honours have been bestowed upon her - most notably an MBE in 2017 for services to swimming and being named the 2019 Sunday Times' Disability Sportswoman of the Year.
After collecting the latter prize, Tai opened up on her and her coaches' thought process when it comes to dominating the field. Rather than pressuring herself to nab a spot on the podium, Tai is a process-over-outcome athlete, stating that she would rather race a good race and miss out on a medal than finish in the top three while being left to rue where she could have improved.
Even for a multiple world-record holder, Tai claimed that she has only ever been fully satisfied with one swim in her career - a 50m freestyle event in Berlin four years ago - closely followed by her 1:03.07 run in the women's 100m S9 freestyle at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia.
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Once the disappointment of losing to Australia's home favourite Lakeisha Patterson had subsided, Tai - who only missed out on gold by 0.05 seconds - was able to look at her silver medal with pride, despite ultimately wanting to kill the Gold Coast crowd's "buzz".
"It was kind of heartbreaking because I didn't want to give the Australian crowd that buzz, I think I missed out on gold by 0.02, and in the moment I think because it was in front of an Aussie crowd and I wanted to put my foot down as a Brit, it was a bit disappointing," Tai said.
"But the day after I thought 'That was the fastest time I'd swum by half a second ever, I'm really happy with my race'. There are things I could have improved upon but for where I was in the moment I was completely happy with it, so I think I'd have been happier coming second with a time that's a PB than winning in a time that I thought was awful. I stand my ground on that."
The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will mark the 12-year anniversary of Tai's first foray into the Paralympic landscape. A hopeful 12-year-old swimmer made local headlines when she was chosen to carry the Olympic flame for London 2012, during which she outlined her goals to compete in the Paralympics, saying: "I'm training hard and hope that I can get there."
Only four years later, Tai was there, and the 24-year-old admits that she still reacts with disbelief when reflecting on the trajectory of her career over the past decade or so.
"I set goals, I remember when I left junior school and we had to write down our hopes and dreams, I said that I wanted to go to nationals and represent my swimming club, the thought of competing on an international stage hadn't even crossed my mind as something that was even possible," Tai stated. "I tell people I lot that my career snowballed, and it really did.
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"I got my classification to compete in para swimming and then I was at Europeans, World Championships and ended up winning Paralympic gold. I didn't have time to process any of it, I was just swimming because I loved it and then I was a successful athlete with loads of gold medals to my name, it was bizarre, I'm still in disbelief!"
Since departing Birmingham as Commonwealth champion for a second time, the ongoing World Championships in Manchester and Paris 2024 have been at the top of Tai's agenda; the former event will present her with another golden chance to wow the home crowd, and she warmed up for the Worlds in ideal fashion with three medals at a recent World Series tournament in France.
Due to a slight "wobble" with the elbow problem that took her out of Tokyo, Tai was not able to compete at trials for the World Championships - which began on Friday 14 and will run until Sunday 30 - but she was nevertheless granted a place in the 28-strong British team at the discretion of the selection panel and is relishing the chance to get back into the competitive swing of things.
"[I'm] really confident, I've been working through my injury with really great help from British Swimming, my coach and the support team and friends, so yeah I'm looking forward to it," Tai ended.
"I'm not swimming the seven or eight events that I did in 2019, I am getting older and my body can't take as much! But I'm excited, it's in front of a home crowd again and hopefully it's going to be fun."
At the ripe old age of 24, Tai's "getting older" comments may bring about a wry smile, but that is the harsh reality for athletes exerting a tremendous amount of physical and psychologocial effort to do their nation proud. Furthermore, for someone whose body has already been put through the wringer, the Dorset native will hang up her swimsuit - whenever that may be - having left a long-lasting legacy for GB's future para-swimming proteges, many of whom might aspire to become the next Alice Tai.
Alice has partnered with supplement brand Bioglan for their second series 'In Bioglan Balance' alongside influencer Mat Carter to show how she finds balance in her busy life. To watch the series, visit @bioglansupplements on Instagram.
Ben Knapton
