Sky Scholar mentor Vicky Gomersall meets swimmer Freya Anderson
By Mark Ashenden
Last Updated: 18/03/18 9:16am
Freya Anderson has the perfect Sky Sport Scholar mentor to help boost her swimming career.
The 17-year-old is off to the Commonwealth Games in Australia soon and she came into the Sky Sports News studios to meet presenter Vicky Gomersall for a catch-up.
Vicky opens up on her plans to help Freya outside of the pool and how she's going to get England cricketer Jimmy Anderson involved.
Freya's been busy at boarding school and often her weekends are filled with training and seeing her family, plus there are her competitions, training camps and the injury she's had to deal with.
We had a lovely chat in the Sky café and I just wanted to hear what she had to say. She's an adorable young girl. She's quite shy but just really wants to do well and swimming is her complete passion.
I've always been involved in the Sky initiatives and helping young kids come through. I was involved in helping sprinter and former Scholar Perri-Shakes Drayton and being a Scholar mentor has been a natural follow-on. It's nice to be asked again and it's the right time for me.
You have to make sure you can dedicate lots of hours to it and even though it seems I don't have lots of quality time I feel I can do lots of things with Freya. I used to be a school teacher and so helping kids is my thing and something I really enjoy.
I asked Freya if she found it hard to get up in the morning for her training and she said 'no, I love it'.
That was lovely to hear. Sky is helping her financially and physically so now she can train during the day.
You speak to any swimming parent and they have to get their kids to a pool for 4 or 5 in the morning before taking them to school. It's an unbelievable mission. Freya has the 100 per cent backing of her mum and dad which is just great.
I asked her what she wanted to get out of having me as a mentor. I wanted her to be honest with me and the first thing she said was wanting to be more confident. And that's my forte.
I also want to help her interviewing technique because Freya said she got nervous and breathless sometimes when getting out of the pool for media interviews.
It's so hard for sport stars to come out of the pool or off court and have to do interviews. We expect these youngsters to talk eloquently on how they are feeling on a big stage and also not to be too full of themselves. It's such a fine line.
It's not like a team sport where they can hide behind team-mates. I told Freya you have to be clever. You have to try to answer the question by answering the question you want to be asked! We are planning to work on this and I'll practice with her and ask horrible questions and see where she's at!
I'd like to get cricketer Jimmy Anderson to help with Freya's confidence as well. I know Jimmy from my reporting days 14 years ago. I was sent to Lancashire cricket ground when he was 20 and he came off the pitch and was talking about his future.
It was like talking to Wayne Rooney when he first started and I thought 'he needs media training!' He was a little shy boy and I remember thinking 'I wonder what he'll turn out like'.
He's great with the media now and it takes years of experience. I also want to speak to Johnny Nelson because he's an amazing Sky Scholar mentor and is someone who's come through as an individual sportsman and has amazing insight and experience of speaking to the media after being battered and bruised!
Overall, though, I'm hoping it will be an 'arm around' relationship and me mentoring can have a 'big sister' feel to it.
But Freya is only 16. I remember at that age when I left school and didn't know what I wanted to do. It's all about having courage about your decisions.
When she's in the pool she turns into a very different animal, but out of it she's shy and it will be lovely to see what's she like in a year and see what she's learnt. I'm really excited to see what decisions she makes about her future. I'm going to really enjoy the journey with her.
The last thing I want to do is rush her. I will check back in a few weeks and we'll chat regularly over the phone or Skype. We seem to really get on which is lovely and I hope she feels the same!