Jazz Carlin: Pain of London 2012 will be making of me

Bubbly character:Jazz Carlin works hard in the pool and the new Evening Standard columnist says her self-belief returned when she won Commonwealth Games gold
(DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)
Jazz Carlin12 February 2016

Four years ago, I nearly walked away from the sport but a lot has changed.

A long period of illness meant I wasn’t fully fit for the London 2012 trials and not qualifying for my home Olympics was incredibly hard to take.

Right then, I nearly packed up my goggles but I gave it a second chance and I’m glad I did.

As horrible as it was, it might have proved the making of me. Missing out on those Games gave me the motivation to push on and was an incentive to experiment a little bit more with training.

It’s sometimes still difficult to look back on those moments but we’re in 2016 and the Olympics have come around again.

Every sportsman and woman has that Olympic dream and I would be lying if I said I don’t want a medal. I would desperately love to be on the podium but there are plenty of stepping stones to get there first.

Why Jazz rocks

Bud McAllister, who coached Jazz Carlin from 2007-14, explains why she is such a phenomenal competitor: “You don’t get swimmers like Jazz Carlin very often. She is a pitbull, rottweiler, whatever. Once she sinks her teeth into a race, she won’t let go. That girl with 50m to go — and [triple 1998 Olympic gold medallist] Janet Evans was the same way — would rather die than get beaten and if you put them in the same race situation 10 times she would win nine times out of 10, no matter who she is racing. “I’m going to win, I don’t care what I have to do.” She has some of the best physical attributes among endurance swimmers, lung capacity, fast recovery — and sheer determination.”

Number one is the British trials in April and it’s a fight to get a place in Rio such is the strength in depth and competition for places.

My focus is on the 200, 400 and 800 metres freestyle, a trio of events I’ve swum at the last couple of trials, which works well for me.

The trials will take me back to Glasgow, home of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, where I had one of those special moments in my career, winning the 800m title.

It gave me an immense amount of confidence and was hugely important given what happened two years previously. That moment gave me true belief in myself.

Since then, there has been upheaval with my coach relocating to Australia while I’ve joined Dave McNulty’s training group in Bath. In addition, I’ve bought a house nearby and it’s a big project with the whole thing being rewired, a new kitchen and bathroom needed, and much, much more but I love the place and the Bath fit has worked really well for me.

Right now, as a group we’re training in the Gold Coast. Usually at this time of year, I’m de-icing my car at 5.30 in the morning, it’s pitch black when I leave for the pool and it’s pitch black when I drive home at the end of the day.

In Australia, you can train outside with the sun on your back and as I’m out here for seven weeks it’s easier to avoid getting a winter illness.

At the moment, I’m predominantly training with the boys so, for me, it’s a perpetual game of chase. It’s good fun and everything we do is about getting faster.

Out here, a typical day starts later than at home. It’s in the gym at 7am for 50 minutes on something called the Versaclimber where you max out for 30 seconds to get your heart rate up to 90 per cent. That’s pretty tough.

Then it’s into the pool from eight until 10 followed by a return to the gym at 10.15 for an hour and a half of weights and exercises to work on, say, leg strength to help with our turns or the upper body.

Then I’ll go home, have something to eat and usually sleep for an hour before it’s back in the pool at five o’clock for another couple of hours. Amid all that training, the big battle is to ensure you eat enough as you’re burning up the calories.

People ask if it ever gets boring pounding up and down the pool for hours on end. It can be tough but it’s all with a goal in mind.

I absolutely love to race and that goes back to when I was a little girl taking my dad on in the pool, and for me right now Rio is the ultimate race.

In light of what happened in London, it’s natural there are moments when I worry I won’t get there but all I can do is just focus on the stepping stones to the Olympics.

Yakult is proud to support British swimming champion Jazz Carlin. Yakult was developed in 1935; today over 30 million bottles of Yakult are consumed around the world every day. yakult.co.uk

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