No regrets as Jackson bows out following her ‘amazing career’

Joanne Jackson is venturing into the unknown of a regular day job as she embarks on the second chapter of her life, the days of rising before dawn to head down to the swimming pool now firmly behind her.

Jackson is working in events promotion, has been since before she announced her retirement from swimming before Christmas, as she plots to carve a new niche for herself.

“I think they saw what I achieved in swimming and gave me the job and I’m really grateful for that,” said the Northallerton swimmer.

Anyone needing an indication of the type of person Jackson, 26, is, need only to glance at that cv.

An Olympic bronze medallist in Beijing, three times a world championship medallist 12 months later in Rome and a podium visitor at every major international championships.

Not bad for someone who made her Olympic debut in Athens as a very raw teenager, and who, before that, spent hour upon endless hour swimming up and down the pools at Derwentside Amateur Swimming Club and Richmond Dales.

“Beijing has to be the highight,” Jackson told the Yorkshire Post.

“Rome was great, getting two individual silvers, but it’s the Olympics that you’re remembered for. When I go in to schools, that’s the medal I’m asked to take with me.

“I forget about it every now and again and then when someone reminds me of it, I’m elated.”

That medal was a bronze in the 400m freestyle, behind Rebecca Adlington, who won the first of two golds in the Far East.

Arguably, that one race was the greatest in British swimming history, and one that had a detrimental effect in the long run – it has never been as good since.

Jackson bettered her haul at the world championships of 2009, but her career began to unravel with a serious asthma complaint that decimated much of the next 18 months. At times, the illness was so bad that her ribs were popping out as she swam.

Jackson, though, fought back and, although she was no longer the force she had been when she was breaking world records in Sheffield in the Spring of 2009, she put the seal on her career by competing in London.

“I had an amazing career and loved making London,” she says. “At one point, I didn’t think I would make it to London so to do so was a big positive.

“I realised after London it was not going to get any bigger or better than that. When I knew I’d raced for the final time with the relay girls I got really upset.

“I’d been swimming with them since 2003 and it was really hard for me.

“The crowd lifted us in London, we picked up three places in the final because of them; 17,000 people cheering for you is unreal.

“After London, I was about 80 per cent sure I would be retiring.

“I went to Africa for a charity bike ride and made my mind up after that.

“I miss it, a part of me always will. It’s been a part of my life for so long and it’s my passion.

“The asthma didn’t force me to retire but it was always at the back of my mind.

“I often thought if I hadn’t have had that what more could I have accomplished? I went backwards after that scare, and it does play on your mind going forward.

“My career was a lot of hard work with all the training and so on, but it’s very rewarding. You don’t really mind getting up at 6.30am when you’re winning medals. I’d forgotten that I’d won medals at all the major international meets until Becky emailed me when I announced my retirement.”

As well as the day job, Jackson also plans in the future to set up a swimming academy, or at least coach the sport she loves.

She said: “I want to give back to the sport that has given me so much.”