Olympic superstar Rebecca Adlington pays special visit to Bilston primary school
Primary school students have received a surprise visit from a four-time Olympic medallist during their assembly.
Rebecca Adlington OBE surprised students at Bramford Primary School in Bilston as she turned up to speak with them about water safety and her career.
The 33-year-old brought along 100s of hand-signed cards for all the children, and even took the time to take some selfies with excited teachers.
Rebecca gave a talk, informing pupils about the importance of water safety and spoke about her successful career as an international swimmer.
Following her talk she opened the floor to questions from the pupils, with one girl admitting she practiced her question all night to make sure she didn't get it wrong.
Adlington won 17 top-flight medals during her swimming career, including two gold medals in Beijing, which saw her become Britain’s first Olympic swimming champion for 20 years.
She said: "I do loads of school visits, it is something that we do as a Learn to Swim company, we contact schools ourselves.
"We appreciate after Covid a lot of schools have not had many visitors, some aren't back to assemblies yet.
"We ask the schools if they would like a visit and our aim is to get the children interested in swimming.
"We promote everything around the sport, including the lifestyle, the Olympics and the sport aspect."
The main aim of the visits, is to get children to learn how to swim, as Rebecca describes it as a life skill, not just a sport.
She added: "That is why I do a bit in my talks on water safety at the start, because I think it is really important they register that swimming is not just a sport.
"Then obviously if you learn how to swim it may open up opportunities to race at the Olympics later in life.
"But the fundamental thing is getting them to learn how to swim.
"Hopefully they will go home tonight excited and tell their parents 'I want to swim', that would be a success for me."
The excitement for the visit spread throughout the building as Rebecca arrived and made her way to the assembly hall.
Rebecca continued: "I love speaking in front of the children, I much prefer them to adults, they are so funny, they just don't care and will say all sorts.
"Hopefully I also shared that I did get nervous, I didn't always win everything and there are challenges along the way.
"There were a lot of early mornings and hard work, whatever you are interested in doing with life, it is not easy to get there, you have to work really hard.
"It is about sharing that message of keep going and it will happen."
Earlier this month, Rebecca launched a lifeline for schools, offering a £1 million funding investment to fight against pool closures.
Mrs Taylor, assistant head at Bramford Primary School, said: "What a fantastic opportunity for Griffin pupils to be inspired by an Olympic Gold Medallist.
"Our children were enthralled by Becky's captivating journey to success and we hope they were encouraged to follow in her footsteps."
