GUEST BLOG: European 200m backstroke champion Lizzie Simmonds

By Lizzie Simmonds, European 200m backstroke champion

THIS past year has been a real eye opener for me and my attitude towards swimming and I have had to remind myself why I do the sport and it is simple - because I love it.

LESSONS LEARNT: Lizzie Simmonds has moved on from 2011 and is ready to put what she's gained from it into practice

It has been a bit of mixture of highs and lows. I didn't swim that well at the stat of 2011 and I didn't qualify for the World Championships at the trials in March.

The time we had between the end of the Commonwealth Games in October 2010 and those trials was short and I probably wasn't ready to be racing in March.
But I moved on and I picked myself up and I was pleased with how I swam in June at the second trials and I managed to swim fast and eventually qualify.

And then the World Championships, where I reached the final of the 100m and 200m backstroke, were a bit a bit up and down again.

I had some good swims and some not so good swims and I know I have got a lot of stuff to work on but I am looking forward to the future and getting back to the top of my game.

I learnt in that time that I shouldn't stress myself out about swimming and if you swim well, you swim well and if you don't swim well, you don't swim well.

Either way I can hold my head up high. I have realised that swimming isn't the be all and end all, and it isn't the end of the world if things don't go right. I have used that as a positive.

I remember the Olympic trials four years ago and I was so young. The Beijing Games were my first and so maybe these ones are a bit more important.

I am four years older now and I wake up everyday thinking about the London Games. It is on your mind constantly and I am in a different position now compared to what I was then.

For me starting out so young my swimming career has been an experience so far - I have been up there and seen how it all works.

I haven't quite been at the top yet and that is the next step and whether that happens next year or the next couple of years I am still only 20.

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