Taking the plunge

The talents profiled here were at primary school when London won the bid to host the games in 2005. Just five years later, at the Delhi Commonwealth Games, the weightlifting sensation Zoe Smith was winning a bronze medal. If they steer clear of injury, keep their heads down and work hard, these tyros may achieve Olympic success in 2012. Watch out.

Jack Laugher, 16, Ripon

Event: Diving
Career highlight: Gold, 1-metre and 3-metre springboard, 2010 World Junior Championships

I specialise in 3-metre and 1-metre springboard diving. You’ve got to be very fit and strong to push down on the board and get full elevation and spin. You’ve also got to have very good spatial awareness, because if you’re spinning round quickly and lose where you are, you can land on your face, back or side. If you land flat off a three-metre dive, it’s pretty much like hitting concrete — and it’s embarrassing.

I train for 22 hours a week and I spend another six or seven hours travelling. Training involves a lot of strength work and core work on the trampoline. I’m in my GCSE year at Ripon Grammar, who have been really flexible about allowing me out of school. I’ve had to drop two GCSEs, but it means I can focus on the lessons I am doing. I struggle to have a social life. My best friend has invited me to his birthday party five years in a row and I haven’t been once because of diving. It’s unfortunate, but I’ve made this commitment.

The Commonwealth Games were great. Being broadcast all over the Commonwealth on TV was amazing. I got an international personal best there, then I dropped in the final. But getting to the games at the age of 15 was a pretty good achievement.

The first titles I won were golds in the 1-metre and 3-metre springboard at the European Junior Championships last year. I’ve never been happier, because a year before I’d broken my arm just above my elbow — I snapped it in half after landing funny. The day after, I had an operation. I was kept in hospital for six days. Diving is my life, and the threat of that being taken away, instantly in one move, was really scary. The doctor said I wouldn’t be back in the pool for 15 weeks, but I was back in six weeks and competing in eight.

To compete in front of your home crowd at the Olympics, and to have almost everybody in the stadium backing you — that would be absolutely insane.

Jennifer Pinches has learnt moves that almost defy gravity (Sam Baker)

Jennifer Pinches, 16, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire

Event: Gymnastics
Career highlight: 2nd place, 2011 English National Championships

Gymnastics is exciting. You learn moves that almost defy gravity. My favourite apparatus is the floor, where you have to combine dance, leap elements and three or four tumbles. The biggest competition I’ve been to was the World Championships in Rotterdam last October. We were in awe of the Chinese, the Russians, the Americans. There were 12,000 people — I just loved it. I’m not fussy or superstitious, but my mum always used to make me eat a banana before competing, so that’s my thing.

There’s no point being here if you’re not going to put everything into it. I don’t think the skin of your hand is designed for the friction of wooden bars, so we use chalk and water to soften the blow, but if your hand has a “rip” — when the skin is torn open — you’ve still got to compete.

I train about 28 hours a week at the City of Liverpool Gymnastics Club. Travelling to training takes an hour and a half each way, though if we have training until 8pm and again in the morning, I’ll stay at my coach’s house or at [world champion gymnast] Beth Tweddle’s. I’m getting routines together, learning new skills and building my stamina. I recently had to dunk my feet in a bucket of ice, which is a bit painful, but it really gets the blood going.

People assume I’m going to be a gymnast when I’m older, but part of the reason I still do my schoolwork — I’m in the lower sixth — is because gymnastics doesn’t last very long. I got involved aged six, when I joined Fromeside Gymnastics Club in Bristol. I started doing one hour a week, two, then three, and was spotted and selected for the national squad. My coach, Amanda Redding, is the best.

It’s daunting thinking about the Olympics. I never aimed for 2012 when I was little, but everything is leading up to London now. I’ve got to stay in the national squad, not get injured and keep doing well in competitions. It’s a big challenge, but if Amanda’s happy, I’m happy.

Katie Clark doesn't think her friends understand how demanding the sport is (Sam Baker)

Katie Clark, 17, Reading

Event: Synchronised swimming
Career highlight: 6th place, 2010 European Championships team event

I started when I was seven, after my swimming teacher in Reading noticed I was a bit double-jointed. I got into the national team when I was 10 and joined the senior GB team in August 2009. I was the youngest person in the team.

It’s a really hard sport. Half our routines are spent underwater, holding our breath, but we have to pretend we’re happy — you get marked on that — and not show fatigue. We’re all graceful arms and legs above water, but underneath we’re working really hard. In close patterns we’re always kicking each other, and if we’re doing lifts, there’s lots of arms and elbows. If a lift goes wrong and you fall onto someone, they can really hurt themselves.

I’m still at school, doing one AS-level. My friends have been really supportive, but I don’t think they understand how demanding the sport is. Sometimes they say, “Oh, I’ve got to get up at 8am for school tomorrow,” and I’m like, “I’ve got to get up at half-five, train and then go to school.”

I have bran flakes, a banana and a drink, then train from 7 till 5, except Tuesdays and Fridays, when it’s 7 to 1, and Saturdays, when it’s 8 till midday. We warm up on bikes, then do speed-swimming, then synchro for the rest of the day. There’s 11 of us in the squad and only nine go to the Olympics. I just need to keep working hard — I don’t think it’s sunk in how close 2012 is.

Harry Brown is one of the nitty-gritty people who likes to plough through everyone (Sam Baker)

Harry Brown, 16, Halifax

Event: Wheelchair basketball
Career highlight: Silver medal, 2010 European Junior Championships

The injuries I get are mainly blisters. Last year I went to basketball camp in America and a bit of my hand popped open, exactly where I push the chair, but you just have to play through it. I lost my legs as a toddler after contracting meningitis. I mainly play as a point guard — handling the ball, passing it around and getting it back. Because I don’t have any legs, there’s no weight underneath me, so when I get hit I fall out of my chair, but I’m one of the nitty-gritty people who likes to plough through everyone and doesn’t mind being on the floor.

I hate to lose, and everyone hates each other on the court, but as soon as you get off they’re your mates again. My best achievement has been winning a silver medal at last year’s European Junior Championships. When you wear the GB vest you get a real adrenaline rush inside.

Sometimes I’ll train for six or seven hours a week, but I can also have times where I’m training for two hours a day. If my mum can’t take me to training, I’ll train at home — a few years ago, I put up a basketball net in my back garden. My mum and granddad have been a huge help to me. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Before Zoe Smith Before was a weightlifter, she was a gymnast (Sam Baker)

Zoe Smith, 16, Abbey Wood, south London

Event: Weightlifting
Career highlight: Bronze medal,2010 Commonwealth Games

My nickname is “Pablo”, after the Cuban lifter Pablo Lara. Training is different every day, but always involves lifting weights. I have to eat a lot of protein and not many carbs. I’d rather have pasta, but I have to have chicken and broccoli.

When I go out for my first lift in a competition, the adrenaline kicks in and I don’t like speaking. Before I compete, I listen to All the Small Things by Blink-182. My biggest lift to date is 110 kilos, in the clean and jerk, where you pick up the weight from the floor in the squat position, stand up and “punch” it over your head.

Last December, British Weightlifting removed my funding. They said I turned up at camp overweight and without a training programme. It was a big misunderstanding — I hadn’t been submitting training diaries, which to them meant I hadn’t been training, but of course I had. I was gutted, but I got back in the gym, worked with a nutritionist and got my funding back in February, which is fantastic.

Before I was a weightlifter, I was a gymnast, but when I was 12 I got a bit bored, so my coach suggested I try weightlifting to make up the numbers for a competition. My weightlifting coach is Andrew Callard, a Commonwealth gold medallist. I entered my first competition when I was 12, and won. There wasn’t a proper ceremony, and I didn’t realise I’d won until I’d got home and my mum said: “Oh my God, I can’t believe you won!” I was like: “Oh, did I?”

I was born in Greenwich, but it wasn’t a huge deal for me when London won the Olympics; I was 11 and I just wanted to carry on playing at school. Now I train five days a week in Erith. I felt quite intimidated at first: there aren’t any other female weightlifters at the gym, and the youngest were four or five years older than me and seemed huge, but we’re all good mates now.

I get sore knees and a sore lower back from lifting. I also get calluses on my hands — you have to file your palms down, which is gross. I’ve only done one senior international event: the Commonwealth Games last year. Competing in Delhi was quite tough — some of the other lifters were Commonwealth champions. Being 16 meant that if I fluffed up I had an excuse, but I don’t like excuses. I dropped my first lift, but I overcame that. At first I thought I’d come fourth and was disappointed. When I looked up at the rankings and was in bronze, it took a few minutes for everything to sink in, but when I stood on the podium it all became very real.

I was doing AS Levels in French, English and art, but I kept having time off, which put me behind. Every evening I’d go to the gym for a couple of hours and I’d end up working into the middle of the night. I got very tired. The Olympics are a massive opportunity and I’ve decided to take a year out of my studies to concentrate on doing really well there. Being called “Britain’s strongest girl” keeps me going, and I like being stronger than boys in the sixth form. But I’m only a weightlifter in the gym. Outside, I’m just a normal kid.

Jodie Williams trains four times a week, for three hours at a time (Sam Baker)

Jodie Williams, 17, Welwyn Garden City

Event: Sprinting
Career highlight: Gold medal, 100 metres, 2010 World Junior Championships

Because sprinting is such an individual sport, you push yourself. When you win it’s all yours — it’s you that gets to stand up on the podium and hear the national anthem playing. That’s really amazing.

Winning my first senior race, in February, was a big shock. I had a tough field, including Jeanette Kwakye, a world indoor silver medallist. In big races, I remember getting into the blocks and finishing, but nothing in between. I get very nervous before a race, but you’ve got to learn how to deal with that. Normally I’m quite chatty, but before a race I go completely silent and cut everyone off.

At the World Juniors in 2010 I won gold in the 100 metres and silver in the 200 metres. I just remember being at 180 metres knowing there was no way I was going to win. I hadn’t lost before [in 151 races]. I was crying as I was running… it was awful. After the race I collapsed into my family’s arms. I had to get up on the podium and stand in second place, which I’d never experienced before. To hear someone else’s anthem playing was tough. But if I could go back in time I wouldn’t change losing that race. Now I know that, if possible, you need to coast through heats rather than run flat out and waste energy — which is what I was doing, because I was just like: “I can’t lose.” I’m able to run a lot more sensibly now.

When I was 15, I started taking sprinting seriously. That’s when I started training with Mike McFarlane. Mac is like a father figure. He pushes me hard in training. There’s a lot of shouting, but I think that’s what I need. I used to swim and do a lot of netball as well, but now I don’t really have enough time for other sports.

I moved up to training four times a week this year, and that’s been tough. I train Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturday mornings, for three hours a time. Everyone dreads this time of year, when things start getting really heavy: a lot of high-tempo speed endurance stuff, which really tires you out and makes you feel sick.

After training I like going to Nando’s, for half a chicken, chips and creamy mash — and then sit around relaxing, too tired to do anything else. I don’t have a strict diet but I do have to watch what I eat. I can’t add a lot of salt to food, but sauces are fine. I’ve started to drink 2½ litres of water a day, and I’ve never been too bad at getting my five a day.

I’m doing AS-levels in PE, maths and psychology. You normally do four, but I dropped one because I didn’t have enough time to keep up with the work. Psychology is my favourite — it’s a bit different and it gets me away from the sport side of things. It’s quite tough to juggle it all, but you get used to not having that much time. I’m very organised.

To be in the Olympics I’ll have to make the qualifying time and then come in the top three in the qualifying trials. I’ve always dreamt of being in the Olympics. To be able to live your childhood dream in front of a home crowd would be absolutely incredible. It makes me well up just thinking about it.