How old were you when you started swimming?

I started swimming seriously from 14 years old. I made the Australian Swim Team at 19 years of age and

have been swimming

for them for the past

8 years.

How many days and hours do you train during the week? Do you get a day off?

I train 10 times a week in the water for 2 – 2 ½ hours each session. Most days there are two sessions in the pool 5 – 7.30am and then again 4 – 6.30pm.

During the day I attended school and then uni. I also have 3 gym sessions a week along with a physio session and massage session. Sunday is a day off.

Who have you looked up to as a role model?

Grant Hackett especially when he won the 1500m freestyle at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games. He is just like you and me. Grant worked hard to be there and achieve success.

What has been your favourite swimming memory?

Swimming in the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay in Beijing at the Olympic Games

What do you love about swimming?I love the experiences, places and people you get to meet. When I am swimming in the water I feel free and find it a great escape from everything.

What are the negative parts of swimming?

Getting up early at 5am. Having to go to bed early at 9pm so I can train in the morning. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices so when friends are going out you have to miss out because you have training in the morning.

Why did you choose to be a swimmer?

You need to swim because you have a passion for it. You train every day to get the best out of yourself and improve on times. What I love about swimming is there is no perfect race. You can always do better. You can have potential to achieve but without hard work it will not get you anywhere. You need to put the hours in to be the best you can. Each pool session I would swim 7km so that is a total of 70km in a week.

How did you achieve your goals?

My goal was always to swim fast. You need to break it down into steps to be able to achieve it. Break it down into training, racing and diet. When I swam for the trials for the 2008 Olympic games my goals was to swim a time of 25.6 seconds for the first 50 metres. At the trials I swam my fastest time ever. However I then went on to break this time at the Olympic games.