Rebecca Adlington: ‘I’m Proud Of My Stretch Marks’ - EXCLUSIVE

It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for Rebecca Adlington, from giving birth to daughter Summer to sadly splitting from Harry Needs.

As she gets ready to celebrate adorable Summer’s first birthday next month, the Olympic gold medallist has spoken about how her little girl is following in her footsteps.

Copyright [Twitter/Rebecca Adlington]

Speaking exclusively to Yahoo Celebrity UK about Summer’s love of water, Rebecca, who is ‘very very excited’ about Rio this year, explained: “She’s so lovely.

“I took her [swimming] at the weekend, she absolutely loves it, absolutely loves it. She obviously can’t swim, don’t get me wrong! But she loves being in water. She loves bath time as well, she loves playing with water, she absolutely loves it.”

Despite the increasing (and ridiculous) amount of pressure women face to lose their baby weight ‘quickly’, Rebecca told us that her focus was on Summer and that she’s proud of the stretch marks she’s got from her pregnancy.

Revealing that she didn’t really feel the pressure, the swimmer said: “I think especially to start with, when you still have your bump in a way, I think your focus is just so much on this new child that you’ve welcomed.

Copyright [Instagram/Rebecca Adlington]

“I didn’t even think about it, I wasn’t even bothered. Even if I got to shower in a day, it would be an achievement because you’re so busy being a new mum!

“Slowly over time, it just naturally happens, your body just naturally comes a little bit back. Don’t get me wrong, my body isn’t what it was before I gave birth, but at the same time, I’m proud of that because it shows that I’ve got a lovely girl now. I’m proud of the stretch marks I’ve got because it means I’ve had full-term healthy baby at the end of it, so I love that.”

As someone who’s sadly been a victim of horrible ‘trolling’ that’s come with the rise of social media, Rebecca, who believes the trend may thankfully be dying out, also had some advice for others who may be receiving such comments, telling them to focus on the opinions of people they care about.

Copyright [Carrie Davenport/Getty Images]

She told us: “If it’s something to do with sport, turn to your coach because you respect their opinion. If it’s something to do with ‘should I wear this’, as a girl then I ask my mum or my friend, like ‘does this look good?’.

“Don’t take people’s opinions if they don’t know you, if they don’t have a clue who you are, how could you possibly value their opinion if they know nothing about you?”

On the subject of Twitter in particular, she added: “The thing is, there is a block button and you just block it and it’s just great because you never have to see it again.”

The Olympian was keen to team up with P&G to promote the Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme, not only because she’s been to Zambia to see for herself just how important clean water is (and how much we take it for granted), but also because of her daughter.

Copyright [Matt Crossick/PA Wire]

She explained: “I think anything that involves children you connect with a bit more when you become a mum, but obviously water for me - I’m so used to living in water.

“I think especially the fact that I trained everyday in clean water and it wasn’t a luxury for me, it was just ‘oh okay here’s another pool’, and actually, to millions of people across the world, it is such a luxury to have that, so [this programme is] massively important.

“It was one of those that when they asked me to be part of, [I said] yes straight away and it’s so important and just seeing how it can affect people’s lives is just amazing.”

Rebecca Adlington was speaking at an event to celebrate 10 billion litres of water distributed worldwide through the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Programme. To find out more, please visit www.csdw.org.