Adam Peaty exclusive: 'I ate burgers nine days in a row after gold medal win'

It is hard to describe how much you have to sacrifice in the drive to become an Olympic champion.

Don’t get me wrong, I love swimming and it’s a privilege to be realising my dream of winning medals and setting world records, but you do have to give up so much to give yourself a chance to achieve your goals.

For the last few years, everything I have done has been focused on being in the right position for the days in Rio that mattered more than any other this summer. Everything you eat has been focused around your performance.

Your sleep patterns are built around what can help to give you that fraction of an edge in the pool. You don’t go out with your mates to watch football in the pub. Your life is on hold as you prepare for the Olympics.

I am quite happy for it to be like this as I love my life in swimming, but it’s strange when you get to the end of your Olympic events and there are no more dates in the diary to build towards.

You are not counting down to the first heat any more. The dream of the day you might get an Olympic medal has come and gone. It is all done and you don’t know what to do with yourself.

You might be surprised by what we did down in Rio, but the athletes’ village was a fantastic place to be and the food on offer ensured that all the swimming team had a great time in the days after our events were finished.

I think I must have eaten burgers for nine days in a row and we also had more than a few drinks to celebrate what had been achieved as well. We let our hair down and after working so far to get to that point, I guess we had earned the right.

Drinking alcohol was not on the agenda in the years leading up to the Olympics and while I had the odd drink at Christmas or on special occasions, we have had a chance to make up for that in the weeks since the Games and it has been a great release all the big build-up.

I can honestly say I didn’t feel too much pressure going into Rio. I just do what I do and I’m confident my best will be good enough. You hope to be seen as a good role model and an inspiration to the next generation of Olympians, but you don’t think about that in the build up to the Games or when you are in the pool.

Now it’s all over and I have a gold medal, I can think about what it might mean for the kids of the future and from personal experience of seeing an Olympics in London in 2012, I know what it did for me and my motivation ahead of Rio 2016.

If there are kids out there who take up swimming or any sport on the back of what they have seen from Team GB athletes in Rio, then we will have achieved so much more than the medals that put us on the front and back pages of the newspapers for a few days last month.

Olympic medallist Adam Peaty joins Nextdoor to celebrate UK launch. Nextdoor is the private social network for neighbourhoods. Download the app for iOS or Android, or visit nextdoor.co.uk to find out more