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Go to Freya Anderson‘s bio and there it is in big, bold letters – Olympic champion – but it’s a crown that does not yet sit comfortably with the Briton.
Anderson swam the heats of the mixed medley relay in Tokyo last year before being replaced by Anna Hopkin in the final who anchored the British team to gold in world record-time.
It meant she added an Olympic title to her seven European golds among a 10-strong haul, world mixed relay bronze and two third places at the Commonwealth Games that she has so far claimed.
Anderson, though, still finds it hard to process.
She said:
“It’s still a weird one for me especially because I swam the heats for relay: I still don’t class myself as Olympic gold medallist.
“A lot of people are telling me all the time that I did deserve it and all this.
“I guess it’s nice to have been part of a team and helped the team get through but it still does feel a bit weird to say.”
Photo Courtesy: Speedo
Anderson, coached by Dave McNulty at the Bath National Performance Centre, may well have mixed feelings when she recalls Tokyo.
She anchored the British women’s 4×100 free to fifth in 52.84 as the quartet set a national record of 3:33.96.
However, there were tears in the mixed zone after the semis of the 200 free where she swam 0.14 slower than the heats as a time of 1:57.10 saw her finish 13th.
Then came the mixed medley relay.
Pressure had reared its head before the Olympics when the confidence others have in her abilities became a burden of expectation on the young woman who has long experienced self-doubt.
“I guess in a way it’s nice people have that confidence in me even though I don’t have it in myself. I try not to listen to it,” she told Swimming World weeks before Tokyo.
If her first Olympic experience was a mixed one, Anderson has the opportunity to set about fulfilling her own expectations in international waters at the World Championships in Budapest.
She said:
“I am quite looking forward to them: it’s definitely come around really quickly but I have had a really consistent, good block of training since January so hopefully I can get the swims that I know I am capable of.”
Anderson made her British debut at the 2017 worlds – also at the Duna Arena – and weeks later became world junior champion in the 100 free.
She recalls:
“I think back then I was just really shy, it was my first team and I was just taken aback by everything, just sort of going to experience it.
“I don’t think me and my coach (Alan Bircher) expected to get on the team so it was a bit of a surprise.
“Now I have got to know the British team over the years and I just feel more confident and comfortable in myself as a person. It is something I look forward to now instead of being nervous.”
Anderson Eyes Quality Fields At Duna Arena
Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS / ISL
The start lists at the Duna Arena will read differently in many events to those in Tokyo because of retirements and the decision by some to bypass worlds.
Ariarne Titmus – winner of the 200 and 400 free in Japan – is not in Budapest but instead focusing on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. So too her Australian teammate and four-time Tokyo gold medallist Emma McKeon.
For the first time since 2003, there’ll be no Federica Pellegrini who retired after a fine career of longevity at the very top table with Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Femke Heemskerk also deciding upon a life beyond the pool.
Described as an “extraordinary” World Championships by FINA, it was a case of off again – as the event initially pencilled in for Fukuoka, Japan was postponed – was rescheduled for the Hungarian capital.
It makes it a busy period for the British team who move on to the Commonwealth Games before rounding off an intense few weeks of racing at the European Championships in Rome in August.
Anderson won five relay golds and 200 free bronze at the Europeans held at the same venue in May last year and she welcomes the chance to compete there once more in an unexpected worlds.
She said:
“It does feel a bit strange but it’s another opportunity to race the best in the world so I can’t really complain and it’s in Budapest which is a really nice pool.
“Quite a lot of the British swimmers are familiar with it – we had Europeans there last year – so it is a bit of a weird one and it has kind of just been plonked in the calendar but it’s an opportunity to get some world-class racing in.
“My events are still really stacked so hopefully I can just focus on myself and prove to myself what I am capable of. That is how I am going into it really.”
Anderson will take on the 100, 200 and 400 free and begins her campaign in the eight-length event on Saturday 18 June.
It is an event in which she has raced rarely on the international stage and one where there is little burden of expectation.
“There’s not much pressure for me to do well as it’s a new event for me.: I’m really looking forward to starting the meet on that.
“But then it could be quite a packed schedule with the relays and the 200, 100 and 400 but it’s just good to…it’s more suited to my stroke I think, the 400 and 200.
“Hopefully I can get my PB down and get a world-class time on the board.”
What a refreshing, honest and humble viewpoint from Freya. So different from some US swimmers and their ‘Yeah, I was the sixth best in my country in the 200 free but I got a gold so get me organised for a life of living off that with motivational speaking, etc.’ I really, really want Freya to do well and make up for the bad luck she has had in the past. Good Luck!