Saturday 10 March 2018 11:35, UK
It's fair to say Modern Pentathlete and fashion design student Francesca Summers has a lot on her plate.
She has her first international competition of the season coming up in America while her degree is also reaching a dramatic climax.
However, with one final outfit to design in France - alongside making the modern pentathlon team for a World Cup in Los Angeles - the Sky Sports Scholar says she would not change a thing...
Other than enjoying the snow in beautiful Paris, I've been busy as usual getting stuck into my student duties and being an athlete. Lucky for me, it's less than two months before I graduate - not that I am counting or anything!
I'm currently in the process of designing and creating three outfits for my collection and I've got one more outfit to design.
So as well as my pentathlon training [run, swim, shoot, fence and horse riding] I am sewing, pinning, fabric shopping, sketching… you name it and I'm probably doing it.
It is all fun and games and I love being able to create a collection completely designed by me as well as do the sport I love.
I use the weekends to top up my training with my week days still consumed by life in the fashion world.
Last week I took the chance to visit Nice and Monaco for a fencing competition. I had a great time and it gave me an opportunity to practice my moves and tactics in a competition environment.
I also got to see the city which was beautiful. Nice was amazing and I would definitely recommend the ice cream.
It was then time to go back to England for training with my partners at home.
"It's always great going home to my old training groups and seeing all the familiar faces. Many of these athletes have told me how I've really inspired them over the years and that's lovely to hear.
The funny thing is seeing how everyone has grown over time - everyone except me! I am still clinging on to the fact I might have a small little growth spurt left in the tank. It's not very likely but I have to stay positive, right?
With my modern pentathlon, I am pleased to announce I will be heading to Los Angeles for the second World Cup of the season later in March.
It will be my first international competition of the season so I will use it to see where I am and what events I need to work on for the later competitions.
Competing in World Cups is a good indication on how the training is going, and although I am only training part-time until I finish my degree, it will be a good indicator on how I need to improve.
I am also really excited for May when I can knuckle down and get into full-time training again. I didn't compete at the first World Cup in Cairo earlier in March but it was great to follow the results and support my other half who did great.
I now know how my family feels when I compete and they aren't there watching when I'm almost every second refreshing the results, wishing I was there.
Watching the competition has really motivated me and made me really excited to compete in LA on March 24.
Now it's time to squeeze in some additional training where I can, fine-tune certain disciplines before flying out to the United States.
