In at the deep end

Jo Jackson is sitting in the living room of her parents’ home in Richmond. Her laptop is open and she’s staring at her diary for the next few weeks. It’s fast looking like a military operation.

In a few weeks, the Olympic swimmer, together with close friend Rebecca Adlington, will head out to Zambia on an epic 280-mile charity cycle ride in temperatures in excess of 40C. Before then, Jackson, who has already had various jabs, has to book in for another two sets of injections, her car needs servicing and she has to get her dog, currently at home in Loughborough, to her grandparents’ in Scarborough. Oh, and she also has to do some training.

Jackson signed up to the cause, persuaded by retired swimmer Mel Marshall in May. However, the risk of injury before the Olympics meant cycling was limited to the occasional short bike ride from home to the training pool.

Clearly fitness was never going to be a problem, but her move from the water to two wheels has not been entirely seamless.

“Oh it’s completely different. As a swimmer you don’t use your legs much and you never finish a training session thinking, ‘God, my bum hurts’. I’ve tried padded shorts, I’ve tried shifting position on the bike, but nothing seems to work.

“You’d have thought after all these years someone would have invented a seat that is at least moderately comfortable.”

If Jackson sounds unprepared, she’s still faring better than Adlington, who until a few weeks ago hadn’t even been on a bike for the best part of 15 years.

“Becky’s a little wobbly. In fact the other day when we were out she just fell off. There was blood everywhere. When you’re in the pool you might twinge your shoulder, but these bikes are lethal.

“I know it sounds like we are going into this completely blind, but we are not going out there to set any world records. In fact me and Becky have said we’ll be more than happy pedalling at the back. I don’t think Mel will stand for that, but when you’ve spent the last few years having someone shouting at you to go faster, the idea of just ambling along doing your own thing a is quite appealing.”

Jackson admits one of the reason she signed up to the cycle ride, along with Adlington and fellow Team GB swimmer Ross Davenport, was to give her something to focus on after the Olympics, which by her own high standards didn’t exactly go to plan. After winning bronze in the 400m freestyle in Beijing, when Adlington took gold, Jackson appeared unstoppable. The following year she set a new world record, beating Adlington in the process, and at the close of the 2009 World Aquatics Championships Jackson had two silver and one bronze – the most medals ever won by a British swimmer at the event.

The entire sport, thanks to new elite training regimes and, crucially, funding, seemed to be enjoying a renaissance, so much so that following the team’s unprecedented success at Beijing they set themselves a medal tally of between five and seven in London.

Many fans thought it would be a walkover, but as the rowers were celebrating at Eton Dorney and as even the men’s gymnastic team unexpectedly found themselves on the podium, home advantage didn’t appear to be working in the Acquatics Centre.

The team walked away with just three medals – none of them gold and two of them belonging to Adlington. Jackson could only manage seventh place in her 400m freestyle heat, failing to reach the finals, and as part of the 4x200m relay squad had to settle for fifth.

However, the fact Jackson was there at all was something of a miracle. Following a severe asthma attack a few years ago in which caused a number of her ribs to pop, she was unable to train for several months and at one point it looked like the condition might bring an end to her career.

New medication gave her hope, but just making it into the team was a major achievement.

“It was a hard week for the swimmers. When we went to Beijing no-one expected we would do so well. It was fantastic that we surprised people, but that brings increased expectations.

“Of course I would have loved to have won a medal in front of that crowd, who wouldn’t? But sometimes in sport things don’t work out the way you want them. The career of a middle-distance swimmer is short and may be I’d already reached my peak three or four years ago.

“Having said all that I think people were a bit hard on what the swimmers achieved. We got more people into finals than ever before and for a lot of those it was their first time at an Olympics and they’ll be there again at Rio.”

It seems unlikely that Jackson will be joining them. While she has put off making a decision over her future career until Christmas, having turned 26 a few days ago, she will be almost 30 when the Brazil Games get under way, positively ancient in the ranks of middle-distance swimming.

“It’s a massive decision and even before the Games I knew I didn’t want to rush into anything. I always said that after London I would give myself three months to think through things. Swimming is all I’ve ever known, it’s what I’ve spent the last 15 years getting up for, but it’s not like being a footballer and thinking, ‘Well, I’ll just see how the next season turns out’. If I do carry on it means committing to at least another two years until the Commonwealth Games or four if the aim is to get to another Olympics.”

Jackson, a former Commonwealth champion, has previously said that had she not devoted her life to swimming she would most likely have become a teacher. There’s half a thought to combine those two vocations by setting up her own swim school, but for the moment her main priority seems to be enjoying time away from the pool.

“I’ve only been swimming once since the Olympics,” says Jackson, whose partner is sprint free-styler Grant Turner. “I love it and the sport has been incredibly good to me, but it’s also all consuming. This year because of training and competitions I missed a friend’s wedding and my niece’s birthday and I don’t get home to Richmond to see my family as much as I’d like. There are a lot of people who have supported me over the years and who have made sacrifices for my career and I guess I’d like to be around for them now.

“I’m at that age where friends are starting to settle down and have babies. Maybe not just yet, but that’s what I want too.”

Jackson will have time to think about her future when she’s on the back of a bike as she spends four days cycling across Zambia in aid of Sport in Action, set up with an aim of inspiring change through sport. Marshall, now a swimming coach in Derby, became involved in the organisation following her retirement after the Beijing Olympics and has set an ambitious fund-raising target of £50,000 for this latest project. At the time of writing donations stood at just short of £8,000, but with a series of fund-raising events planned both en route and after the ride, Marshall at least is confident.

“We don’t really know what it will be like, except it will be hot, very hot,” says Jackson, who is hoping to channel the spirit of her dad, who has long been a keen cyclist. “Each day we will be splitting the cycling into two sessions to avoid the 
worst of the midday sun. The one good thing is that there’s only one road 
through Zambia, so I’m hoping it will 
be flat.”

Each night they will stay with local families and there will be few luxuries.

“I keep texting Becky to ask what she’s taking because I have no idea what I should be packing,” says Jackson. “I’ll be taking wipes, lots of wipes and maybe some Haribo to keep the sugar levels up, but as for anything else I’m stumped.

“Staying in the villages will all be part of the experience, but I expect at the end of four days I’ll be dying for a long hot shower.

“However, at the moment that’s the least of my problems. The little training I have done has been on a mountain bike. I get my road bike next week and didn’t think anything of it, but everyone keeps telling me it’s very different and it will take a while to get used to. Time isn’t something I’ve got a lot of, so I’m just hoping I can get through it.”

So no chance we’ll see Jo Jackson following Paralympian Sarah Storey and swapping swimming for cycling?

“No chance,” she says. “I went to watch the BMX at the Olympics and it was terrifying and as for the Velodrome, have you seen how fast they go round that thing? The truth is, I’m not very good on land.”

To make a donation to the Sport in Action cycle ride go to www.justgiving.com/zambiacycle.