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Rio 2016: Double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington backs Loughborough College swimmer Molly Renshaw

Posted: 7th August 2016 - 3:06pm

The most successful swimmer in British Olympic history has backed Loughborough College swimmer Molly Renshaw to “go out there and own it” as she begins competition in the pool later today.

As 20 year old Molly prepares for her Games debut in Rio for the 100 metre breaststroke heats this afternoon, with the 200m next week, double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington said the Loughborough College Sport student is “in the best position possible.”

Adlington, who won two gold medals in 2008 in Beijing and two bronze in London four years later, is in Brazil and will be watching the younger swimmer’s progress with interest.

Molly is a British record holder and is ranked second in the world for 200m breaststroke.

"With training in Loughborough, at the High Performance Centre, Molly's used to that pressure and being in that kind of environment. She's used to all that and she's in the best position possible.

"And she's got no pressure on her, which is never a bad thing. No-one's expecting her to go out there and win, which is really nice. She can just go out there and own it.

"And if she keeps swimming the way she has been doing, she can have a really good meet,” Adlington told the Nottingham Post.

Molly spoke to Loughborough College before heading for Team GB’s Brazil training camp in Belo Horizonte last month and shared the disappointment she felt at narrowly missing the chance to compete in the London 2012 Games, following an unsuccessful appeal after the last Olympic trials.

“That was hard to go through. My coach wanted to appeal. I was so young. It really knocked my confidence. I actually didn’t know if I even wanted to get back in the pool.

“Then I came to Loughborough and I have had so much support.”

Molly went on to win 200m Breaststroke gold at the 2012 European Junior Championships , silver at the British Championships for the next two years and at her Commonwealth Games debut for England at Glasgow 2014, she won 200m Breaststroke bronze, before taking silver at her senior European Championship debut a month later.

Molly ended 2015 with three gold medals and one silver at the ASA’s winter meet in Sheffield, breaking two British records and rising to second in the world rankings.

The British Swimming Championships in Glasgow saw Molly knock three-tenths of a second off her previous British record with a time of 2:23.56 in the 200m Breaststroke final to claim silver.

Ahead of Rio, Molly trained for 30 hours every week in the pool and the gym alongside her BTEC Sport studies at Loughborough College. “It is good to have a change of pace with the academic side of things. I really enjoy it.

“The College is great at not making the work add to your pressures.

“I am at the pool for 6.45, swimming between 7.30 and 9.30, going to the gym, napping a little, getting back to the pool and training from 4.00 to 6.00. I am eating a lot of protein!

“People ask if I feel I am missing out on socializing but I see friends every day, we go out and eat some evenings. Hopefully I have a long life ahead of me to socialize, this is just a few weeks of that life.”

“We all fly out for our pre Olympic holding camp in Belo Horizonte on 22 July. We have to adjust our training to 12.00-2.00 in the afternoon and 10.00 – midnight.

“We go to the Olympic village in early August, before the Games begin on the 5th. I will be there for the whole thing, right until the closing ceremony.

“The whole thing is so exciting. It is a dream come true. I have worked so hard for this. It’s the experience of a lifetime.”

Pictured: Loughborough College swimmer Molly Renshaw who is set to compete in the 100m and 200m Breaststroke in Rio