London's 2012 hopefuls as you've never seen them before

1/5
Dan Jones10 April 2012

With only 12 months to go, Britain's gold medal hopefuls are training harder than ever. Dan Jones travels up and down the country to meet them at their most stylish.

Heather Fell
28, modern pentathlete
Lots of British girls in modern pentathlon [which comprises riding, swimming, fencing, running and shooting] come from a Pony Club background, so they have great riding skills, which may be why the girls have been more successful than the boys. For me it was a natural progression. I was brought up on a farm, so I was pretty outdoorsy. I've done swimming and riding from as long as I can remember.

It used to be stereotyped as just for people in the military, or as a sport you needed a lot of money for. Now it's open to everyone. Britain has been very successful ever since we won two medals at Sydney in 2000.

In a regular week I swim five times, I run five times and I go to the gym three times plus three fencing lessons, an hour's ride and four shooting drills. I lose count of how many times I get changed every week!

We're doing altitude training in the Pyrenees at the moment. There's a lot of hard running and swimming, and we have fencing and sparring partners coming from the Czech Republic and Hungary. When we come back we'll compete in the World Cup finals and then the European Championships at the end of July.

Winning silver at Beijing has really opened doors. The year before I'd almost given up. It's incredibly tough to qualify but it's certainly going to be worth it. There are four British girls in the top seven in the world standings at the moment. So the two of us who end up going to London 2012 are going to be right in there with a chance for gold.

Lives Bath and Devon
Height 5ft 6½in
Weight 60kg
Medals Silver at 2011 World Cup; silver at 2010 World Championships; bronze at 2010 European Team Championships; silver at 2009 European Championships; silver at 2008 Olympics; gold at 2008 World Cup
Training hours per week 30 hours plus physio
Calories per day 3,000
Secret weapon Stubbornness/perseverance
Achilles heel Sweets
Nemesis French and German girls

Alistair Brownlee
23, triathlete

Triathlon is a family affair for us. We both did a lot of swimming and running when we were young, just for the fun of it. We had an uncle who was doing triathlon and one day we just asked to have a go.

We're very competitive in training and racing, although when we race it's more about beating the competition than beating each other. But because we race at such a high level we only compete when we're racing - the rest of the time we get along very well.

To be a successful triathlete you have to do a lot of training - so it's important to enjoy being outside and being active. We train at least 35 hours a week - it can be six hours of swimming, 15 hours of biking and 19 hours of running. It takes its toll physically, so we can't train like this all the time. We only work at that intensity for three or four weeks before a race, and then we have a spot of easy down-time. The hardest thing to pick up is the swimming, it's the most technical of the three sports.

Winning the world championships in 2009 was fantastic - my best achievement to date. But the Olympics is the biggest thing in triathlon. It's a one-day event rather than a series [like the World Championships] and it only comes round every four years.

It would be great to race with my brother at London 2012. Britain has one of the strongest teams in triathlon, but we're both racing well enough and heading in the right direction to do it. Britain hasn't won an Olympic medal yet, and there's a feeling that we need to do it now.

We're running the Olympic course in Hyde Park at a selection event in August. It'll be good to get a look at the course - although all the other potential Olympic athletes will be racing on it too. We'll just have to rely on home advantage.

Lives Village outside Leeds, with Jonny
Height 6ft
Weight 70kgs
Training hours per week 30-35
Medals Gold at 2009 World Championship
Calories per day approx 5,000 made up of a decent amount of everything
Secret weapon Strong across all 3 disciplines
Achilles heel Transitions
Nemesis Javier Gomez, Jonny

Jonathan Brownlee
21, triathlete

The season started early this year, so I've been training since October. I've been performing consistently since April now and I've had no injuries so all is going well - touch wood.

The 35 hours of training we do every week is split across the three triathlon sports. I'll start with a 60-minute swim, followed by a 90-minute run and a three-hour bike ride. But sometimes we'll concentrate on shorter bursts - so tonight I'll just be doing a 40-minute run.

I don't really count calories, but I would reckon on eating about 4000kcals every day. Lots of high-calorific food, like cereals, rice and pasta - loads of toast during the day. It's simple food designed to give me as much energy as possible - the stuff to avoid is junk food, which has lots of calories but doesn't really fill you up.

I started swimming when I was around six, and I started running at school when I was about eight. I sort of fell into triathlon after that.

To be a successful triathlete, you need a lot of dedication. There's a lot of training. You've got to have a strong body, and keep it maintained with stretching and physio. But the main thing is just to enjoy being an active person.

Training with my brother makes it far easier to get out of the door when it's cold and wet outside. There's a rivalry between us but we know when to stop - we make sure we're not racing each other until we get to competition.

To qualify for London 2012 I have to come in the top three in the London and Beijing World Series. The London event is on the Olympic course, and both races have the same start-time, so it will be very thrilling.

The dream is to be running alongside my brother in London. But at the moment it's still a dream. We've both got to qualify first.

Lives Village outside Leeds, with Alistair
Height 5 ft 9in
Weight 67kgs
Medals Under-23 World Champion in 2010
Training hours per week 30-35
Calories per day Between 4,000 and 5,000
Secret weapon Strong across all 3 disciplines
Achilles heel Doesn't know when to call it a day in training
Nemesis Alistair, Gomez and Mario Mola

Alistair and Jonathan are BT ambassadors

Fran Halsall
21, swimmer

Apparently I'm the fastest woman in the world. [Halsall recorded the fastest 100m freestyle time of 2011 last month.] That's pretty cool, I didn't think I'd swam that fast but the weird thing is the best swims you do feel really easy. You get out of the pool and think, 'I could do that again!'

Going to Beijing aged 18 was totally surreal. You'd walk into this big village and suddenly you'd see Pele, or you'd be sitting next to Rafael Nadal for dinner, or you could shoot hoops with Kobe Bryant. I'm glad I had the experience of going to an Olympics before. I've already won Commonwealth Gold, so to win Olympic Gold in London would be fantastic.

Since Beijing I've moved to Loughborough to train. The squad is one of the best in the world. We have Olympic medallists, world champions and Commonwealth champions. Everyone battles in training, and it's really good fun. We swim 50,000m-60,000m per week. Then there are lifting sessions in the gym - chin-ups, bench presses and squats so I've got more muscly. Then we do bodyweight circuits. And we've been doing kickboxing sessions and a bit of ballet. Ballet teaches you different ways of moving your body. In the pool you have to think about how you position your hand and move it through the water. Ballet helps with that, and it's good to be able to connect the different parts of your body together. The kickboxing is sheer 'let's get fit and physical'. And the girls are a lot better than the boys. We're all a bit ruthless. I'm from Liverpool - it's kind of in my blood!

We want to beat our total of six medals at Beijing. There's lots of rivalry between the girls and the boys in the team but it's healthy. Everyone wants to be on the top of the podium in London.

Lives Loughborough with boyfriend Alistair and fellow GB swimmer Lizzie Simmonds
Height 5ft 71/2 in
Weight 60kg
Medals World Championship silver (2008, 2009 - 100m freestyle) European gold (2010, 100m freestyle; 2010; 2008, 4x100m medley, 2006, 4x100m medley), Commonwealth gold (2010, 50m butterfly)
Training hours a week 22 in pool 7 on land
Calories per day 3000
Secret weapon Speed
Achilles heel Turns
Nemesis Britta Steffen

Jess Varnish
20, cyclist

After Beijing where Great Britain won seven gold medals the bar for track cycling has been set very high. Chris Hoy getting three golds was an incredible achievement that very few people can ever hope to emulate. It's great having Victoria Pendleton who also won gold to train with. We get on really well, and having her in the team means I can get a lot of advice. She's there to help with everything. Not just cycling advice, but she's also really good at advising me about photoshoots.

During the last Olympics I was in my final year at school. All I could think while I was watching Team GB on the TV was that I can't wait to start cycling full-time, and hopefully get to the Olympics in London so it's very surreal. I have to pinch myself every day. I feel very lucky to be doing it.

Training is going well. Each session is structured up until the games. I have a training plan for the next 13 months. I've gone back to basics with a lot of gym work, I can now squat over 100kg. I do lots of lots of strength work on the bike. Because of this I'm sore all the time and I have to eat a lot to replenish everything I'm breaking down. That means protein shakes. It's vital that I improve my strength so that I can compete with the big girls.

In racing season I'm in the gym every morning for a few hours. Then I'll be on the track in the afternoon for three hours. Normally I have double training five days a week, and then I train once or twice during the weekend.

My ultimate goal is Olympic Gold. This is what I've been training for all my life. To have a home Olympics doesn't happen for every athlete so it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. If I can get there it'll be an incredible achievement. Not that any of my family have got tickets. We all entered the ballot but no one has managed to get any. It's a real shame.

Lives In Wilmslow with cyclist Andrew Tennant
Height 5ft 7in
Weight 66kg
Training hours per week Up to 5 hours a day, 6 days a week
Calories per day I am trying to gain lean muscle, so a big party of my diet is protein
Medals Silver medal at 2011 World Championships
Special Power: Leg speed, to be a track cyclist you have to be able to ride a fixed wheel so this is very important.
Achilles heel: I have to learn to rest properly! As an athlete I love to be active but sometimes you just have to rest.
Nemesis Outside of the GB team I'd say the Australians and Chinese

Louis Smith
22, gymnast

Before Beijing I was a different Louis: naughty, mischievous, the class joker. Not much responsibility. But after that 50 seconds on the pommel horse in the Olympics [for which Smith won a bronze medal} my life changed instantly. I was now a role model and my life turned upside down. For a gymnast, the Olympics is the biggest competition. To win a medal at 19 was mind-blowing.

Before I took up gymnastics I was very good at a lot of different sports - especially football and basketball - but there wasn't much depth in those games. I wanted a bigger challenge. With gym there are six apparatus, and thousands upon thousands of different skills. There's so much satisfaction in working on a skill for a month and then cracking it. I'll still be learning until the day I retire.

Gymnastics has always been a popular Olympic sport. Everyone's done a little bit at school, so they know it's extremely difficult, but we make it look easy. If you see us doing triple-back somersaults in a graceful manner, it's enticing. It's so rewarding to hear it's one of the most oversubscribed sports at London 2012.

Now I'm training for 2012, and it's going well. I have a few aches and pains: my wrists get sore, my knees are sore - ankles, shoulders - everything is getting worked. But that's what comes with being a top-level athlete. My main target is just to go to the Games and do my routines cleanly. I'm not going to predict this medal or that medal. The worst mindset to take into a competition is 'I'm going to win this'. If you make a mistake your confidence goes, instantly. But I know that if I go and do the best routine I can I should get a good result.

Lives On his own in Peterborough
Height 5ft 11in
Weight 76kg
Medals Bronze at 2008 Olympics (pommel horse); silver at World Championships 2010 (pommel horse, 2010); gold medal at 2006 Commonwealth Games
Training hours per week 32
Calories per day I'm just sensible - Mum cooks me lots of vegetables
Secret weapon Keeping calm in competition
Achilles heel Sweets
Nemesis French and German girls

Andy Triggs-Hodge
31, rower

My campaign for 2012 started in earnest in January 2009. That's when I decided to come back, and I knew the road only led to one place: London. I'm very patient. An Olympic champion has to have that unwavering, self-driven desire to win.

At Beijing in 2008 British rowing was picking up gold medals left, right and centre but it didn't feel like the best that we could do. We were improving, but we weren't pushing ourselves. We're not winning every race at the moment like we were four years ago so it's much more exciting. Every time we pick up an extra half-second it feels really good.

In training, every stroke counts, right through the last one of every session. The World Championships in August are the biggest event of this year, and then it's the Olympics. Our coach Jürgen will soon decide whether we row in a pair or a four at London 2012 based on whatever he thinks gives us the best chance of a gold. To me it doesn't matter. We know that all the work we are putting in now will pay off in London, whichever event we're in.

It's a shame that tickets are in short supply. More of my family will have seen me in Beijing than will end up seeing me in London. It would be better if there was some recognition for regular followers of the sport, some reward for supporters who have followed us from New Zealand to Slovenia.

Lives Oxford, with his wife Eeke Triggs
Height 6ft 4in
Weight 100kg
Medals See Pete's tally
Training hours per week 8am to 4pm
Calories per day 6,000
Secret weapon Supreme strength and stamina
Achilles heel Ability to put on weight and stamina
Nemesis See Pete's answer

Pete Reed
29, rower

Our coach Jürgen Gröbler hasn't come away from an Olympic Games since 1972 without a gold medal so there's only one that counts for us, and that's the gold. As 2010 approaches Jürgen is pushing us harder and harder. He wants us to be able to win a gold medal at 70 per cent so it won't matter if there's something wrong or one of us is ill. We're training with the aim of becoming so much better than the opposition that the Olympic final is a walkover. It's very, very tough.

Andy and I are rowing in a pair at the moment, although that might change as the Olympics approaches. A pair is much slower than a four [in which Reid and Triggs Hodge won Olympic Gold at Beijing]. Every stroke you take feels like you're bending down to pick up a fridge, then trying to stand up and throw it over your head. It's a brutal sport. You can really punish yourself in a boat.

There's no light at the end of the tunnel with training. It's seven days a week. Jürgen gives us a day off every fourth or fifth Sunday. We just get Christmas Day off. It doesn't matter what the weather is like, we're out there every morning putting the hard graft in. It becomes your whole life. I train all day at Caversham Rowing Lake. I get back and I'm too tired to go out, so I end up in bed at 9pm. The alarm goes off, it's 6am and it's time to go back to training. When you win a gold medal it's a moment of realisation. For months before the Olympics you can't think of anything after the end of the race. Winning in Beijing after a year of such hard training was a moment of massive relief. It was very special to be part of a team doing it.

Lives Chiswick
Height 6ft 6in
Weight 101kg
Medals Gold at 2008 Olympic (coxless fours); gold at 2005, 2006 World Championships (coxless fours)
Training hours per week 6 hours a day, 7 days a week
Calories per day 6,000-7,000
Secret weapon Lung capacity 11.68 litres - the biggest in the world
Achilles heel Hayfever
Nemesis The Kiwi pair

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