• Swimming

Adlington future dependent on coach

ESPN staff
October 3, 2012
Rebecca Adlington's future remains unclear © PA Photos
Enlarge

Rebecca Adlington says she is not ready to make a decision about her future, but says she will only carry on swimming with coach Bill Furniss by her side.

Adlington, a four-time Olympic medalist, has already ruled out competing at Rio 2016, but is yet to decide whether to call time on her career.

The 23-year-old says the future of coach Furniss is key to whether she decides to stay on for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Furniss has been linked with the head coach role at British Swimming following the departure of Dennis Pursley.

"If I was going to carry on, I would only want to be coached by Bill," Adlington told BBC Sport. "We need to sit down and see whether he thinks I have more in me and what he wants to do as a coach.

"Rio is probably a little bit out of reach. I will be 27 and I do think that for a female distance swimmer it is difficult. If I was a sprinter, I would never even question it and would be back in the water already, but it's just whether I can move down to the 200m and 400m.

"Bill is the only one who can really answer that for me. To be honest, after all of these years, he knows me better than I know myself.

"It's not something I will rush into as it's such a big decision and I'll have to sacrifice a lot to be at the top. It'll be something that I'm happy with and both Bill and I are comfortable with and confident about."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Close

ABOUT COOKIES

To help make this website better, to improve and personalize your experience and for advertising purposes, are you happy to accept cookies and other technologies.

More Info Here Cookie Choices