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SWIMMER Richard Gamble joined the Army at 16. He remembers: “It put me on the straight and narrow. The Army gave me a focus.”

As a Lance Corporal in the Royal Engineers, he was swimming for the Army team and training for his diver’s course. He adds: “I was a very fit lad!”

Then, aged 22, he suddenly began to get severe mystery pains in his legs.

Richard explains: “It got to the stage where I could barely crawl up the stairs. It was scary.”

Eventually doctors diagnosed a rare condition called popliteal artery entrapment syndrome. He says: “It basically meant that no blood supply was getting to my lower legs.”

After a series of operations to strip out muscle, Richard continued to suffer and was medically discharged in 2015.

He says: “It was a horrendous time – like a tidal wave had hit my life.”

The married dad of two retrained as a gas engineer, but still suffers chronic pain.

Richard, of Hythe, Kent, admits: “Mentally it took a lot out of me. I hit rock bottom. I was depressed and suicidal.”

After getting back into swimming, making the Games team was a dream come true for Richard. He adds: “If you had said this time last year that I’d be in the squad I wouldn’t have believed you.” Richard’s typical diet…

Breakfast: Muesli, poached eggs, fruit

Lunch: Chicken salad, banana

Dinner: Steak, veg, sweet potatoes

Guilty pleasure: KFC