📢 We continue our exclusive interview with Olympic Swimmer, Molly Renshaw to learn more about the gender split in swimming. Do you think that women are getting more recognition in swimming – have you seen a change over the years? From 2008 to 2012, I felt like women – such as Becky Adlington, Jo Jackson and Caitlin McClatchey – were dominating the sport. But then Adam Peaty and Duncan Scott came along and shifted it more to the male side. Over the last year or two, though, I feel like the women are starting to creep back, so it’s feeling more equal. I think I am lucky to be in a sport where it’s equal pay and equal opportunities, as I know this isn’t the case for a lot of sports. Is it right that you were considering retiring after the 2020 Olympic Games? It was definitely in my head. I thought that, maybe at the age of 24, I was past it – which seems silly now because it’s so young, but as I had been in the sport for so long, I wondered when I was going to stop improving. But after the pandemic I was achieving my best times, achieving personal best and breaking British records, which obviously makes swimming so much more enjoyable. After that, I had the dream year, although I didn’t perform as well as I wanted in the Olympics. If I had done, I would have been more likely to retire to end my career on a high. But now, I want to give myself the time to correct what went wrong and achieve what I wanted to in the 2020 Olympics, just a few years later in 2024. What advice do you give to young swimmers that you wish you knew when you were starting out? The biggest learning point for me was to enjoy the journey. There have definitely been times when I’ve taken things too seriously. I’ve had to take a step back to realise that yes, it’s a competitive sport, but if I’m not enjoying it, I won’t be performing to my full potential. #WomenInSports #WomenEmpowerment #Olympics #TeamGB