When you’re a full-time athlete, you obviously have to get used to training occupying a lot of your time. It’s particularly nice when you see that training pay off and, when I broke my own world record a few weeks ago, this was certainly the case.

I train six days a week - on most days this involves four hours in the pool (an early morning session and an afternoon session). On three days I also build in a one hour session in the gym. As a Paralympic swimmer, it’s important to monitor the effects that training has on my body but I’ve always found that swimming has been more of a help with my cerebral palsy. 

When I was younger, and receiving treatment through a children’s centre, they commented that the swimming seemed to benefit my condition and so my mum actively encouraged me to swim more.  I’m always swimming now so it’s easy to underestimate the benefits that it has for me. Occasionally intense training can make it more difficult for me out of the pool but my coach and I can keep an eye on that and adjust what we do accordingly.

I train at the University of Bath, as part of Team Bath. My coach had never worked with anyone with my condition before and that’s actually helped my progress. Sometimes he’ll ask me to try something that might push me out of my comfort zone but that’s what is really helping my development. We’re currently working on changing my stroke and the training can be slightly trial and error but that makes it very rewarding. 

Forcing myself to move out of my comfort zone was the main reason behind my move to Bath from my original training base in Swansea. I studied and trained at Swansea for years but, once I had finished my degree, a lot of my friends moved away. Then I won the gold medal at the Paralympics in Beijing 2008, under very difficult circumstances both personally and physically, and afterward it seemed like one chapter of my life was over and I needed to start another one. It was hard to leave Swansea but being at Bath has helped me gain a fresh impetus and open myself up to new challenges.

I’m always looking ahead to London 2012 and the way to make sure I compete, and medal, at the Paralympics will be to stay motivated throughout the whole build-up. Being at Bath really helps with this - I’m surrounded by top athletes, from rugby players to modern pentathletes. There’s a real sense of camaraderie and if someone is having a tough day at training the other athletes will help push them through. This training environment breeds a much better interaction between athletes from different sports and we can all use that to our benefit.

In terms of my preparation ahead of London 2012, there are a number of competitions that I’ll be focusing on. The IPC World Swimming Championships in Eindhoven this year and the IPC European Swimming Championships in Berlin in 2011 will be key events for me. 



However, my next competition will be the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. The competition is the only annual, international, multi-sport disability event in the world and is therefore an excellent chance for me to pit myself against athletes that I rarely get the chance to race. We hardly ever get to race against the Americans as it costs so much to travel to the US to compete, so getting that international race experience is really important.  It’s not just swimming that benefits as the event runs for seven days and also includes track and field athletics, wheelchair basketball and seven-a-side football. 

This year will also be the first year I have competed at the BT Paralympic World Cup since becoming a BT Ambassador. It makes a difference when you feel that a company like BT is willing to support you and work with you because they have faith in your ability. 

It’s also great to see BT supporting sport and being one of their Ambassadors has really benefitted me on a personal level as I’m able to share my experiences to help inspire BT customers and employees. On a practical level they have also made my life much easier by setting me up with mobile broadband, which really helps me stay in touch with family and friends when I’m away competing and stuck in a hotel!

I think anybody in an Olympic or Paralympic sport has one eye on London 2012, whether they admit it or not!  It’d be amazing to walk out in front of a home crowd knowing that they are really cheering for me, rather than walking out in front of a crowd and having to pretend that the cheering is for me!  It won’t just be people that compete at London 2012 that get something out of it, it’s an event that the whole nation will be able to share in.  

In terms of competing at the Paralympics, I feel like I’m on course, although you can’t take anything for granted. People discuss how the attention around London 2012 is putting pressure on athletes to perform. As far as I’m concerned, no one could put more pressure on me than myself!

Liz Johnson is a BT Ambassador.  BT is the official communications services partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and title sponsor of the BT Paralympic World Cup.  For more information visit http://www.btplc.com/BTLondon2012/