Rebecca Adlington

2009–2013 In 2009, Adlington said she had felt the extra pressure and expectation of being a double Olympic champion, and that it had been more difficult than she had anticipated. She also stated that media work had affected her swimming. She finished second behind Jackson in the 400 m freestyle at the 2009 British Championships; Jackson broke the world record, with Adlington's time being the second fastest ever recorded. At the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome, she swam a personal best time of 4:00.79 to win bronze in the 400 m freestyle. Adlington chose to compete in the Speedo LZR swimsuit in which she had won her two Olympic gold medals. The seven other finalists all wore polyurethane costumes which the sports' governing body FINA banned in 2010. She added a second bronze in the 4×200 m freestyle. The quartet of Adlington, Jackson, Jazz Carlin and Caitlin McClatchey set a European record time of 7:45.51. She also finished fourth in the 800 m freestyle. At the end of 2009, Adlington was selected to represent the European E-Stars team at the Duel in the Pool, a contest against American swimmers held in Manchester. She achieved victory in the 800 m, but was second behind Allison Schmitt in the 400 m.

In 2010, Adlington won the 800 m freestyle at the Mare Nostrum in Barcelona. At the European Aquatics Championships in Budapest; she achieved victory in the 400 m, finishing 0.85 seconds clear of second-placed Danish swimmer Lotte Friis. She had earlier finished seventh in the 800 m freestyle. She also won bronze as part of the 4×200 m freestyle relay team with Carlin, Jackson and Hannah Miley.

Adlington qualified for her first Commonwealth Games after triumphing in the 200 m at the 2010 British Championships. At the Games in New Delhi, she won a bronze medal in the 200 m freestyle, the first time she had raced the distance in an international competition. She was also part of the 4×200 m freestyle relay team that won bronze. In the 800 m freestyle, Adlington led from the start to win her first Commonwealth Games gold medal. Her winning time was 0.05 seconds shy of the Commonwealth Games record, and she had suffered a stomach upset the night before. In the 400 m freestyle, Adlington won her second gold medal of the Games, and in doing so broke Sarah Hardcastle's Commonwealth Games record by two seconds which had been set in 1986.

Adlington finished first in the 400 m freestyle at the 2011 British Championships with a time of 4:02.84. She then edged out Carlin in the 200 m, before claiming victory in the 800 m freestyle, her third win in the competition. She was also victorious in the 800 m freestyle at the ASA National Championships where she won by a twenty-second margin. At the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai, Adlington won the 800 m freestyle gold medal. With 100 metres of the race remaining, Adlington trailed Friis by 0.65 seconds, but she overtook the Dane to clinch victory by 0.69 seconds. Earlier in the competition, she claimed silver in the 400 m freestyle behind Italy's Federica Pellegrini.

Adlington qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London by winning the 400 m and 800 m freestyle events at the British Championships. Prior to the Games, she was victorious in the 800 m freestyle at the Mare Nostrum in a competition-record time. At the Olympics, Adlington won bronze in the 400 m freestyle in a time of 4:03.01, as she finished behind Camille Muffat of France and Schmitt of the USA. She then secured a further bronze in the 800 m freestyle, recording a time of 8:20.32 in a race won by USA's 15-year-old Katie Ledecky. Adlington had trailed her by one second at the halfway mark, but the American extended her advantage with Adlington ending the race more than five seconds behind the gold medallist. After the Games, Adlington said that she would no longer undertake the 800 m race, and would not compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She was still considering if she would aim to compete in her shorter events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

On 5 February 2013, Adlington announced her retirement from swimming aged 23. She stated that she had "achieved everything [she] wanted too" and that she wished to "finish on a high". At the time of her retirement, Adlington, with two gold medals, was the most decorated female Olympian in Great Britain's history at the games. In January 2014, it was announced that she would become a mentor to six "promising" British swimmers from the World Class Swimming Programme. In 2016, Rebecca Adlington's Swim Stars was launched, with an aim of helping primary school aged children learn to swim, as well as providing support to swimming pool operators on making the process as fun as possible.

Personal bests and records held Long course (50 m)

swimmingrecord eventsort = 01 event = 200 m freestyle time = 1:56.66 recordinfo = date = country = UK city = Sheffield meet = British Championships ref = At Mansfield's Civic Centre headquarters, Adlington was presented with a pair of gold-coloured Jimmy Choo shoes by Tony Egginton, then the Mayor of Mansfield.

In November 2008, Adlington was named as the Sports Journalists' Association's Sportswoman of the Year, receiving her trophy at a ceremony in London from Princess Anne, herself a former winner of the award. On 14 December 2008, she was voted third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. She was named European Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine, and in 2009, she was awarded the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award.

Adlington was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours list, which she received from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in June 2009. In December that year, she received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of Nottingham in recognition of her outstanding contribution to British sport. Also that year, a Class 395 high-speed train operated by Southeastern was named after her.

The Sherwood Swimming Baths in Adlington's hometown of Mansfield, where she swum as a child, was renamed the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre in January 2010. The Yates Bar in Mansfield was briefly renamed the Adlington Arms, and the 2012 Olympic torch relay passed by the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre. Following her retirement from competition in 2013, Adlington was named as the inaugural inductee into Nottinghamshire County Council's Roll of Honour. In 2016, Tram 231 on the Nottingham Tram system was named after her, and she was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

Television Adlington participated in the thirteenth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, which began airing in November 2013. She was the seventh celebrity voted out by the public. Adlington was a guest panellist on the ITV chat show Loose Women for the first time on 25 March 2014. She was a contestant in the 2016 series of The Jump, but withdrew after dislocating her shoulder during training.

Adlington worked for the BBC as a swimming pundit at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She repeated this role at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, and the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Adlington has also appeared on: All Star Family Fortunes (18 September 2010), A League of Their Own (2 November 2012), I Love My Country (September 2013), Celebrity Come Dine with Me (2013 Christmas Special), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (December 2013), The Chase: Celebrity Special (28 December 2013), A Question of Sport: Super Saturday (July 2014), 8 Out of 10 Cats (13 October 2014), Desert Island Discs (June 2015), and Celebrity MasterChef (August 2017).

Personal life In 2005, Adlington's sister was affected by encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain. Her sister recovered over time, but its impact inspired Adlington to say in 2012: "It made me more determined. It makes me train harder". Adlington became an Ambassador of the Encephalitis Society in 2009, to help raise awareness of the illness. Her great-uncle was footballer Terry Adlington, a former goalkeeper with Derby County. As a result, she is a Derby County supporter.

In 2009, comedian Frankie Boyle was censured by the BBC Trust's Editorial Standards Committee for breaching guidelines, after making remarks that the committee called "offensive and unacceptable for broadcast" during a 2008 edition of TV show Mock The Week, when he jibed at Adlington's appearance. Adlington's agent said that the BBC's rebuke was insufficient.

In 2014, Adlington married former swimmer Harry Needs. The couple had a daughter together, born in June 2015. In March 2016, Adlington announced her separation from Needs. In March 2021, Adlington and her partner, announced the birth of their son. The couple married in August that year. In August 2022, she suffered a miscarriage and underwent emergency surgery. In October 2023, Adlington announced on social media that she had a miscarriage at the time of her 20 week scan. In 2025, she revealed she had been diagnosed with Coeliac disease. In March 2026, Adlington announced the birth of her third child.