REACHING an Olympic Games is the pinnacle from nearly every elite sportsperson, and that experience is no different for a Whitchurch native and Team GB medal hope.

Hector Pardoe is already out in Japan as he prepares to take on the 10km open water swimming course with a gold medal in his sights.

Formerly of Whitchurch Wasps and at elite level with Ellesmere College Titans, Hector now lives and trains in Montpellier, in the south of France, and after sealing his qualification for Tokyo 2021, he has quickly turned his focus on preparing for the Games in the best possible way.

And that means that he hasn't been able to join in with one or two Olympic traditions, both down to Covid-19 and also to keep his focus on the main prize.

"Unfortunately I’m not in the village, but in a university that has developed a relationship and association with Team GB over the last few years," he said.

"I do believe I’m going in for a look around but I won’t be sleeping there.

"It’s down to our director making the decision because the open water competition is at the back end of the Olympic schedule and the Games tend to have parties starting in the village once competitions stop.

"I don’t think that’s so much for this Olympics as athletes have to be out 48 hours after their Games have finished.

"But the logic is that if we stayed there a few nights before, we wouldn’t be getting as good quality sleep, plus the race is early in the morning to accommodate for an American audience.

"It starts at 6.30am our time and I’ll have to wake up about 2am for it – it’s a 40-minute drive and we need a two-hour preparation time too.

"This week we haven’t done any preparation; we’ve just been getting over the jetlag and getting our bodies back to full strength.

"But as of next week, we’ll gradually bring our training forward half an hour each day but certainly we will try to acclimatise so by the time we reach August 5 (and August 4 for everyone back home) we should be ready to go for 2am."

Whitchurch Herald:

Many peoples' first Games are usually the one they announce themselves to the world stage in, or are there just for the experience.

But Hector, given that at the tender age of 20 he may have many more to come, hasn't come to Japan for the experience – he's come to win.

"If I wasn’t aiming to win, then I really shouldn’t be here," he said.

"The mentality of an athlete is to win and that’s what I’m going for and if I fall short, then I’m not going to be upset with myself.

"That’s the aspiration and if you don’t think like that, then you should be doing something else.

"It’s quite a stacked field and open water is progressing at every Olympic cycle since it was introduced in 2008 as a new sport.

"There’s five or six able to compete for that Gold medal.

"I’m feeling good and strong and at the moment, I’m doing heat acclimatisation because we most pools we train in tend to be 26-27 degrees and most open water races are between 18-21.

"But here it’s going to be 29-30 so it’s going to be a big shock, so swimming in that for two hours is going to be a big shock.

"I’ve just got out of a 43 degree heat bath which is what I’m doing outside of the pool."

Whitchurch Herald:

As for the course itself, Hector has heard one or two things that it might have a certain issue with it, but he is trusting his coaches on how that will pan out.

But he admits he is more concerned with potential foul – in more ways than one – weather.

"Regarding the rumours about the smell of the water, I’m not too concerned about that at the moment," he said.

"My girlfriend is a French triathlete staying in the village – she’s been down to the course as they swim in the same water.

"She said that it wasn’t smelling great so I did ask out director if the water isn’t too good then isn’t a good idea to go down and get acclimatised to it in case we get ill.

"But they’re confident that the water is fine.

"I’ve also heard there’s a possibility of a tropical storm coming our way too which could lead to a sewage overflow into the water, but hopefully that doesn’t happen."

And he reserved some special words for his kit, although he admitted it hasn't quite gone to plan.

"The kit is lovely – it’s a real privilege to wear it and it’s different from the British swimming kit I’ve been wearing over the years," he said.

"But unfortunately, some of my kit has been lost in the post.

"I live in France and they sent out a starter pack for me to travel as it would have been too expensive to send the whole lot out and also because of the short turnaround between qualification and the Games.

"That would have been a nice pair of shoes, a tracksuit and other stuff so I’m missing some parts, but it’s still good putting it on every day.

"It’s like a fashion walk each day trying to decide each day."

Hector races around 10.30pm BST on Wednesday, August 4.