I've got a lot of time for Rebecca Adlington. She's a proven world-class swimmer, a pleasant, grounded person, and she's quite tidy in a Mansfield sort of way. All in all, she's a good egg.
However, her mini outburst earlier this week suggests to me that she's a bit out of touch with modern society.
She's just been in the British Gas Swimming Championships in Sheffield (not sure what they've got to do with it) and was beaten into second place by her nearest rival Jo Jackson, who took bronze in one of the Beijing races last year. She later went on to win another race, setting records all over the shop.
Now, I don't need to tell you we're currently in a turbulent climate. The world financial market is still on its arse, and on a daily basis once-great companies are folding and sacking their staff. Not 2 weeks ago the Sri Lankan cricket side was attacked by gunmen in broad daylight, and old Fritzl's just been put away for life for...well you know what he did. To that end, you would think Adlo's attitude would be one of "well, you can't win 'em all", but instead she decided to go off on a self-involved mini-rant, as follows:
"I'm a just turned 20-year-old girl. To deal with the amount of pressure and expectation on me has been harder than I ever thought. No-one can train you for that, not even my mum and dad, I've just have to deal with it as best as I can. Hopefully that race has shown that I have actually dealt with it quite well."
Bloody hell, turn it in, woman. Yes, she trains very hard, getting up early every day to pursue the Olypmic dream, but she succeeded, so it was worth it. And far be it from me to point out the obvious, but other than a parade in London and a couple of telly appearances at the time, has she really been under that much scrutiny and pressure since Beijing? I'm sure she's recognised in the street all the time and gets dragged to all manner of fetes and supermarket openings, but if she didn't want the attention, she shouldn't have tried to become the Olympic champion in the first place.
Like I said, I've got a lot of time for her, but in the current climate of some people literally not knowing whether they'll have a job to go to from one day to the next, I bet some incredibly successful little upstart moaning that being an Olympic double gold medal winner is a bit tricky really sticks in their clack.
And rightly so - it's only bloody swimming.
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