London 2012 Olympics: Team GB's Rebecca Adlington aiming to deny rivals chance for their own fairytale Everyone wants to beat me. I wouldn't say that I feel the pressure of that, but I know it is true. "I might be the person to beat, but anyone can say 'on paper, this person is going to be in the top three," but I have never seen a meet where the top three on paper finish as the top three in every single race. That's what is so exciting about sport in general, not just swimming: people who are ranked top don't make finals, it happens. It's life. If the Olympic champion is to be dethroned in London, it will not be as a result of poor preparation. Under the tutelage of long-term coach Bill Furniss, she has been on a relentless programme of conditioning in and out of the pool that makes the glamour and thrill of the Olympics still feel a long way off. "I know for everyone else the Games seem really close, but for me, I still have hard work ahead," she said. All I can concentrate on is the training I still have to do today, to do this week. I don't look past that. I don't do anything adventurous, anything where I could get hurt. I don't even cycle because I am scared of having an accident. I don't go out, I don't party. I am just too tired! I was in bed at 8.30pm the other day. My training is all I focus on. It is the sort of steely commitment that comes not just from the desire to savour victory again, but from knowing the bitter taste of defeat. After the highs of Beijing, Adlington slumped at the following 2009 World Championships. By her own admission, she had not put in the hours; perhaps it is also fair to say that she found her head turned by the wealth of exciting opportunities - film premieres, the chat show circuit, awards bashes, photo-shoots, commercial work - afforded to a 19-year-old double Olympic Champion. It was hard at the World Championships in 2009 because I had not done the work. I had not had the build-up I would have liked," she said. I don't regret anything I did after Beijing. Not many people get to go to an Olympics and especially with what I did, I wanted to do stuff that I would never have the opportunity to do again. I still trained - people think that I didn't swim at all but I did. But I couldn't do the level of work because I was so tired from going here, there and everywhere. Obviously I did suffer when I went to the Worlds. It wasn't the best I could have done (she finished fourth in the 800m, two seconds behind major London 2012 rival Lotte Friis of Denmark). I understand why. It was a result of not having done the amount of distance work I needed to do. Whatever the outcome in the London Aquatics Centre, it is quite clear she will not be saying the same after these Games. Since the blip in 2009, Adlington has confirmed her status as the leading 800m swimmer with World Championship gold in 2011, and the world's two fastest times at the distance this year. The first came at the Barcelona leg of the Mare Nostrum in June and then at the recent national championships in Sheffield, when she swam 8min 19.03sec, 0.83 sec quicker than her time in Spain. My confidence is fully back after the World Championships, and now it is a question of carrying on with that, making sure I am doing all the work. I don't want to let the opportunity of a home Olympics go by. As swimmers we put in so many hours: I train 50 weeks a year for one moment that lasts eight minutes. Actually, it's ridiculous when you say it like that. It can go right, it can go average; you never know. That's what is terrifying and scary, but at the same time it's exciting. I don't want the moment to go by; I don't want to come out crying. I cannot control the other girls. If they are faster, better than me, then fair play to them. I am glad that I will be able to look back and say: 'I have no regrets. I have done everything possible. Adlington is cheerful, even-tempered, comfortable in who she is, and the possessor of a quietly ferocious determination to win. Those looking for a new Olympic gold medallist to emerge from nowhere might do well to focus their attentions elsewhere than the women's middle-distance in the pool. Rebecca Adlington is a British Gas ambassador. British Gas is getting the nation to show its support for the British Swimming Teams and is giving away free swims. Visit www.britishgas.co.uk/freeswimming