Rhea Anderson is a Olympic abnormal.
She hates swimming in the sea, lakes or any open waters. Chlorine often causes a rash all over her body. When she was a little girl, she held her mother’s leg tightly. This was her contempt for swimming pool courses in her early years.
However, the 20-year-old is about to become the next star of the British swimming team, similar to her idol Rebecca Adlington, Although she is one year older than Adlington, when she won two Olympic gold medals in 2008.
Anderson is not expected to repeat this feat, but the British swimming hierarchy is very excited about her potential, especially all head coach Bill Furnis who coached Adlington.
“Becky was young when he won the gold medal-it shows that you can do it anytime,” she said. “Bill tells the story of how she worked hard, to lift your spirits and move on.”
When talking about the potential parallel in Tokyo, she added: “No, it’s not true. I never think like that. I just focus on the present to see how good this is for me.”
Anderson has participated in the 4x100m freestyle finals and today achieved her personal ambitions in the 200m freestyle, and will become an integral part of Britain’s highly rated relay aspirations in the water. At the recent European Championships in Budapest, she played a role in nearly half of Britain’s 12 gold medals.
Despite Adlington’s flattery, it is ironic that her first Olympic The love of sports is equestrianism-in 2012, she and her family were in the stands in London.
During the last Olympic Games in Beijing four years ago, she watched the Adlington game, but she was enduring her own demons while in the swimming pool.
“In the beginning, I was very conscious and not confident,” she recalled. “This is the main reason I hate it. I have to put myself there.
“I remember one time when I was by the pool-maybe six or seven years old-I stood behind my mother crying because I didn’t want to go in, somehow, I finally got where I am now! My mother must have seen something, because she Let me move on.”
Her age is always very high, as she said, “protruding like a sore thumb”. But it’s different in the water: “No one cares what you look like in the swimming pool.
“So, it’s more like an escape, being yourself somewhere. I’m tall, this is my hair, I remember my ears. Now, I don’t mind being a ginge and being tall has its benefits. Swimming Of course it makes me less self-aware and more confident.”
Nowadays, water is like a “second home”, even if not all water, you can put the worst days in one place.
“I hate the sea, the lake, or any open water,” she admitted. “I can’t even kayak on the river. I don’t know where it came from-I won’t drown, but I don’t like what’s below me. It scares me to death.”
As far as the swimming pool is concerned, the only problem now is that chlorine will exacerbate her eczema. In Europe, she avoids this problem by showering and moisturizing after each meeting, and she will stay vigilant in Tokyo to avoid similar things.
This is not ideal, but as she said, “I can’t peel off my skin and start again.”
In her game, the possibility of fighting against some heavily piled up areas in Tokyo is not yet clear, but this year’s delay gave her more experience that year. As for the next Adlington, she is not sure.
