British Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington has revealed that she never held ambitions of becoming famous when she entered elite swimming.
The 25-year-old launched into the spotlight after winning two Olympic gold medals at the Beijing Games in 2008.
She later followed that up by clinching double bronze medals at London 2012 before announcing her retirement last year.
Following Adlington's decision to quit competitive swimming, the athlete has appeared on ITV reality show I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here and has been focusing on her 'learn to swim' programmes.
"I didn't expect anything to happen," Adlington told Sports Mole. "After Beijing I didn't have a manager, I'd never even considered having any profile. I've never been one of those people that wanted to be famous, and you don't get into swimming to be famous.
"For me it was just a case of, 'oh god, what do I do?'. It was more overwhelming and then I just had to try to get used to it. It was still a bit like, 'why do people want to come up and talk to me?' or have a photo, I just didn't really ever expect it to happen. I certainly didn't expect it to happen to myself, so it just took a bit of getting used to, but at the same time it's not like I'm Madonna!"
Read our full interview with the sportswoman here.
