She will celebrate her 26th birthday next week but Garioch swimmer Hannah Miley has no intention of moving out of swimming’s fast lane.
The Commonwealth champion heads to Kazan in Russia this week for the world championships but it is next year’s Olympic Games in Rio which is dominating her thoughts.
With good reason too, after Miley swum the second fastest time in the world this year – a result which gives her every chance of securing gold.
Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu is the only woman to go quicker than the 25-year-old Scot in the 400m medley this year.
However, the two-time Olympic finalist is not getting carried away ahead of the world championships in Kazan, with the swimming action set to get under way on Sunday.
Miley said: “For me, the world championships is only second to the Olympics because I’m competing against the same athletes. Especially with it being a year until the Olympics, it is the last opportunity to race against the best athletes in the world.
“It is an exciting time but it doesn’t mean if I get a podium place here then it is going to be the same at the Olympics.
“Whatever happens at the worlds, it is not going to dictate what happens at the Olympics so this is a chance to practice my skills, make sure I nail my turns and the other marginal gains so that when the Olympics come around – which is the big one – I’m prepared to hopefully stand on the podium more than once.”
This will be Miley’s fourth world champion-ships and she has reached the 400m medley final on each occasion, winning silver in 2011.
Miley, who will also be competing in the 200m medley and butterfly events, added: “I do feel confident but I’m not the sort of person to brag and say I’m going to come away with a medal.
“It is something I do target and I am aiming for and it is an added bonus if I do accomplish my targets because I can’t control what my competitors do. I don’t know if they will have a good day or a bad day on the day we race.
“As long as I give the best performance I can give, as cliched as it sounds, that’s all I can do. Then I have to see if that is good enough to get on the podium.
“If not then as long as I hit the target time I have set myself I will be happy as that is what I am looking for.”
Hannah Miley is one of 1,300 athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery supported World Class Programme. Find out more at www.uksport.gov.uk