Rebecca Adlington

Freestyle swimmer Rebecca Adlington is a former British swimming champion. She took home two gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in both the women’s 400m and the 800m freestyle swim and was Britain’s first Olympic swimming champion since 1988.

Adlington began swimming at an early age, at the Sherwood Colliery Swimming Club near her hometown of Mansfield. She was then selected for the Nottinghamshire County Elite Squad before going on to represent Great Britain. She won two gold medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and continued to represent her country until her retirement in 2013. In 2009 she took bronze at the World Aquatics Championships in Rome, and won the 400m freestyle in the European Swimming Championships in 2010. In the same year she took gold twice at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, repeating her Olympic double. She competed in her last Olympic Games in London in 2012, taking home two bronzes in the 400m and 800m freestyle events. She currently holds the world record for the women’s 800m freestyle, with an incredible time of 8:14.10, a full two seconds faster than the previous world record.

Outside of professional swimming, Adlington has made a number of TV appearances and now works as a swimming correspondent and pundit for the BBC. She was part of the presenting team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio and has made guest appearances on shows such as A Question of Sport and 8 Out of 10 Cats. In 2008 she won the Sports Journalists’ Association’s Sportswoman of the Year and in 2009 was awarded an OBE for her contributions to British sport.