Chloe sets sights on Tokyo 2020 success
RIO 2016 was Chloe Tutton’s first time competing at an Olympics.
The dream started for the young athlete more than a decade ago and her efforts culminated with the 20-year-old being named in April as a member of Team GB for Rio 2016.
Despite her best efforts and months of training and hard work, Tutton, who hails from the Rhondda, just missed out on an Olympic medal.
Tutton finished an agonising fourth in the women’s 200 metres breaststroke final at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Rio, with a time of two minutes 22.34 seconds.
Japan took home the gold and China claimed third place, while Tutton was 0.06 seconds off the podium as Yulia Efimova of Russia finished second in 2:21.97.
Efimova, a doping cheat who had previously served a 16-month ban and has also tested positive for meldonium this year, was given a last-minute reprieve to compete in the Olympics.
Speaking at the I Am Team GB celebrations at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff on Saturday, Tutton said the disappointment will only spur her on to improve and said she wouldn’t be bitter about the result.
She said: “I work so hard on making sure that everything’s clean.
“Everything that I do is right and I just wish it was fair.
“I think everybody who is on the right side wishes that it was fair. I think that’s the right thing to do.
“I’m not going to be bitter about it because that’s the decision that was made. It gives me that hunger to want it more.
“Next time I want to put it right. It’s given me the determination to get better – there’s positives and negatives.”
Tutton said the welcome home she had since returning from Brazil had been brilliant, and that she had spent her time off catching up with friends and family before she resumes training.
“It was a lovely welcome home. As soon as we got off the plane it was a round of applause.
“It just made me feel a bit proud that everybody was there supporting us.
“It’s just nice being home. The support is overwhelming.
“Everybody is so kind and I’m really grateful.”
Tutton hopes the Olympics will inspire children in Wales to take up a wider variety of sports.
“It’ll be great to inspire younger Welsh athletes that want to achieve their dreams,” she said.
“I feel like Wales hasn’t really been involved in other sports.
“They love the rugby, they love the football. With Great Britain doing so well in the Olympics, it’ll inspire people to take up new sports.”
The amazing story of the Rhondda teenage swimmer who has realised her Olympic dream.
A fundraising campaign was launched in the run-up to Rio 2016 to ensure Chloe’s proud mum could travel to Brazil to watch her daughter compete.
Chloe said even though she didn’t know where her mum Claire was sat, it spurred her on during the race.
She said: “Just knowing she was there and just her presence, it just gave me some sort of strength.
“It was really nice to see her after racing.
“Thanks to everybody who chipped in and helped. Without them getting behind me and my mum, she wouldn’t have made it – I’m really grateful.”
Claire said: “I was just so happy to be there to actually support Chloe. I was so determined to go.
“Thanks very much – without them I couldn’t have gone.
“It was great to be there for her first Olympics.”
Tutton is now setting her sights on the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, and hopefully the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On the prospect of competing in Tokyo, she said: “There’s a few steps in between. We’ve got Gold Coast in two years, which I hope to be on the team for.”
Tutton’s love affair with the sport started on holidays before her mum Claire took her to the local pool in Ystrad Rhondda, where she was brought up.
The former Ysgol Gymraeg Bodringallt and Ysgol Gyfun Cymer Rhondda pupil started swimming in the local pool near her house, before joining Rhondda Swimming Club.
Now based in Cardiff Bay, she said she is looking forward to resuming training and setting her sights on new goals.
She added: “It’s all over now and I can just look back and think I’ve achieved my dream of being an Olympian but now I can set new goals and try to achieve them all.”