Spendolini-Sirieix still fighting teenage battles despite summer of success

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix might be a double Commonwealth and European champion but the diving sensation still has to fight the everyday battles of a teenager. At the beginning of 2022, the 18-year-old from London was struggling to manage the stress of being an elite athlete and schoolgirl. Ad But with an incredible support system behind her, she pushed on and erupted onto the senior world stage, an achievement that saw her named National Lottery Awards 2022 Athlete of the Year after beating the likes of Eilish McColgan and Laura Kenny in a public vote.

DivingSpendolini-Sirieix showing no intentions of slowing down2 HOURS AGO Spendolini-Sirieix, who won two Commonwealth and European golds this summer, said: «I'm very proud with how far I've come this year and very happy that I didn't give up. »It feels good to know that my hard work has been recognised and that it's not going undetected. «Competition is very stressful and I do have to juggle a lot of things.

»I have to juggle school and exams and training and at times it does become very overwhelming. «I'm only human and I'm not perfect and I will never be perfect but I can try very hard.» Spendolini-Sirieix, daughter of TV star from Channel 4 hit show Fred Sirieix, is one of more than 1,000 elite athletes funded by The National Lottery through UK Sport's World Class Programme. And after emerging from Birmingham 2022 with the individual 10m platform title, mixed 10m synchro gold and women's 10m synchro silver, it's evident that the teenager has come a long way since the eight-year-old who was scared to jump in the pool.