Bethan also competed at the 2018 British Para Swimming Championships and won silver medals in the 100 metre Butterfly and 400 metre Freestyle events, a major highlight in her successful career. \u201cI never thought I\u2019d be able to do that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cI love travelling, so to be able to have those stories to tell people, that is probably one of my biggest achievements. I don\u2019t remember what my times were when I got my silver medals, I just remember who I was competing against, who was there supporting me, which of my teammates were there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
While she revelled in the chances to see many different places, Bethan acknowledges that she had to make sacrifices in other ways. While studying for important exams, she barely had any time to rest: <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cAt one point I was swimming nine times a week, four mornings and five evenings. Then every night I would do land training which would be stretching, core work, just to get warmed up for the pool. That would be quite intense. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cObviously, I would have school every day and between that I would have to try and eat. In a normal lunchtime, everyone can sit and chat, but that wouldn\u2019t be my lunchtime. I would sit and do my work, because I knew I didn\u2019t have the time after school.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
Carefree time with friends was not the only way in which Bethan\u2019s lunchtime differed: \u201cMy diet was so strict. I was not allowed anything sugary, stuff like crisps, chocolate, sweets. I ate a lot of fruit and veg, and protein, to make sure I had the energy to keep myself going, and I had to drink up to six litres of water a day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
The unintentional lack of understanding from classmates she described was familiar to me, but I hadn\u2019t considered that, at the level Bethan was competing, tension among swimming acquaintances also existed: \u201cFriends that don\u2019t do swimming don\u2019t really get it, how much commitment you have to put into it. They\u2019ll invite you out for a meal and be like \u2018oh, you can miss one session\u2019. But missing one session can affect you so much as your fitness drops really quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cI can admit, I have lost quite a lot of friends from it. It\u2019s brutal. Even in the swimming world, I\u2019ve lost a lot of friends because I became their rivals and they were like \u2018I can\u2019t be your friend anymore\u2019, which is completely crazy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
Despite this, Bethan says she could not have done any of it without those close to her: \u201cIt\u2019s good getting all the medals and stuff, but I wouldn\u2019t have been able to get through everything without my friends.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
Bethan\u2019s twin sister, Megan, who joined City of Cardiff club a year prior to Bethan but gave up the sport during her GCSEs and now studies Law at Exeter University, was Bethan\u2019s inspiration for joining the club, and they remain very close: \u201cI always wanted to be like my sister. Through junior school and the majority of high school we were in the same classes. So, when it came to uni, it was quite a big shock to both of us. <\/p>\n\n\nBethan (left) with twin sister Megan\u201cWe always say, I\u2019m her left arm and she\u2019s my right arm, and for the first couple of months we were a bit lost, but every week we try and either phone or facetime each other just to have a chat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
When Megan quit swimming, Bethan began to have doubts too, but her sister persuaded her to stick it out, for which she\u2019s very grateful. However, now in her second undergraduate year, Bethan has found that her Photography degree needs more of her attention. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cMy head wasn\u2019t completely in the game when I was at competitions. Normally, I made sure that was the sole thing I was concentrating on. But when I was competing last year, I was like \u2018oh my god I\u2019m meant to be doing this work, I\u2019ve got a deadline, what am I going to do…\u2019 I knew that there was something up, but I tried to keep pushing through.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\nBethan hung up her costume at the end of 2019, and can now live closer to university and give it the dedication she gave swimming for so many years. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cIt was a hard decision, of course it was, but it\u2019s made me feel happier. Last year I felt like I rushed my uni work, whereas this year I\u2019ve got time to make sure I\u2019m happy with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n
Bethan plans to swim again, for fun and fitness, in the new year. Adapting to her new routine features a daily advent chocolate and saying yes to more social activities, but she says that, to be honest, she wants to maintain the diet as much as possible and her ideal night involves staying in and watching a film. <\/p>\n\n\n
She does, however, hope to see changes to the wider appreciation of female swimmers and what it takes for them to be successful. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cIf you look now, the British squad have released their team for the European Short-Course and I think about 70 percent of the swimmers are guys. You think of Michael Phelps, you think of Adam Peattie. You don\u2019t really think of the females. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cI know that, especially in Cardiff, there are so many girls swimming compared to boys which I think is a really good thing because women should get as much support in sport as men do and they should get the recognition they deserve because there\u2019s so many amazing female swimmers out there. <\/p>\n\n\nBethan\u2019s idols include Welsh Olympic medalist Jazz Carlin, and English swimmer Siobhan-Marie O\u2019Conner. “People think of swimmers and they think they\u2019re born to swim and their lives are perfect, but if you look into Siobhan\u2019s life, she\u2019s been through hell, she\u2019s had so many problems with her health and stuff \u2013 how she\u2019s still swimming I have no clue!\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n
While Bethan has undoubtedly played some part in that journey towards greater equality in sport, for now she\u2019s most grateful that her swimming background taught her organisational skills, and it\u2019s time to trade cap for camera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bethan Eckley talks about fitting training, travel, social life, diet around life as a USW student I KNOW first-hand that competitive swimming is much more than a sport, it\u2019s a lifestyle. As I hauled myself out of the pool, exhausted, I remember seeing the big board flashing with good news: PB, personal best, I\u2019d done it. Pulling my team t shirt over my still-soggy costume in an attempt to keep warm, I popped a well-earned jelly baby in my mouth. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":38826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[127,128,74,129,130],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-38819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-longer-reads","category-sport","tag-athlete","tag-quit","tag-sport-2","tag-student","tag-swimming"],"yoast_head":"\n
Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bethan Eckley talks about fitting training, travel, social life, diet around life as a USW student I KNOW first-hand that competitive swimming is much more than a sport, it\u2019s a lifestyle. As I hauled myself out of the pool, exhausted, I remember seeing the big board flashing with good news: PB, personal best, I\u2019d done it. Pulling my team t shirt over my still-soggy costume in an attempt to keep warm, I popped a well-earned jelly baby in my mouth. […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-24T14:20:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"465\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Catriona Aitken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Catriona Aitken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/\",\"name\":\"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-24T14:20:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/cd010ff516495c44d916632c53531efd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png\",\"width\":620,\"height\":465},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/cd010ff516495c44d916632c53531efd\",\"name\":\"Catriona Aitken\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bb14ddf04b3ca2120098b96f89e79485\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e500b3a79b055234469c280cb83a9dd5a3fe2d39c676d2e7bcc6324f98cd814?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e500b3a79b055234469c280cb83a9dd5a3fe2d39c676d2e7bcc6324f98cd814?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Catriona Aitken\"},\"description\":\"Catriona is a Trainee Journalist on the MA News Journalism course at Cardiff University. She is covering Radyr, Morganstown and Pentyrch for The Cardiffian.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/aitken\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian","og_description":"Bethan Eckley talks about fitting training, travel, social life, diet around life as a USW student I KNOW first-hand that competitive swimming is much more than a sport, it\u2019s a lifestyle. As I hauled myself out of the pool, exhausted, I remember seeing the big board flashing with good news: PB, personal best, I\u2019d done it. Pulling my team t shirt over my still-soggy costume in an attempt to keep warm, I popped a well-earned jelly baby in my mouth. […]","og_url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/","og_site_name":"The Cardiffian","article_published_time":"2020-01-24T14:20:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":620,"height":465,"url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Catriona Aitken","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Catriona Aitken","Estimated reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/","name":"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash - The Cardiffian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png","datePublished":"2020-01-24T14:20:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/cd010ff516495c44d916632c53531efd"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/01\/feature-image-1.png","width":620,"height":465},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2020\/01\/24\/cardiff-swimming-prodigy-makes-her-final-splash\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Cardiff swimming prodigy makes her final splash"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/","name":"The Cardiffian","description":"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/cd010ff516495c44d916632c53531efd","name":"Catriona Aitken","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/bb14ddf04b3ca2120098b96f89e79485","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e500b3a79b055234469c280cb83a9dd5a3fe2d39c676d2e7bcc6324f98cd814?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3e500b3a79b055234469c280cb83a9dd5a3fe2d39c676d2e7bcc6324f98cd814?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Catriona Aitken"},"description":"Catriona is a Trainee Journalist on the MA News Journalism course at Cardiff University. She is covering Radyr, Morganstown and Pentyrch for The Cardiffian.","url":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/author\/aitken\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38819"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=38819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20191208_160140379_iOS.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20191208_160158775_iOS.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20191208_160129458_iOS-820x1024.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/20191208_160147937_iOS-624x1024.jpg\")