Freya Colbert's advice on managing training alongside your studies

Athletes are always working hard to balance their education alongside their training schedules.

There are several ways to help manage this, including setting a timetable and planning key training sessions, through to getting good sleep and managing stress levels. You can learn more about these tips here.

One athlete currently balancing education and training is 400m Individual Medley world champion and Paris 2024 star, Freya Colbert, who is studying bioengineering at the University of Loughborough where she trains at the performance centre.

Ahead of competing in Paris, Freya shared some tips on how she manages her study time around her busy schedule.

Striking the right balance can look different for everyone and below, Freya explains how those tips help her.

She said: “I just have to make sure I’m organised and do the work when it comes. I can’t be one of those people that leave all the work until the last minute.

Work smarter not harder

“I’m quite lucky that I’m naturally quite intelligent but I split my year last year so I had a lot more time to devote to the modules that I am doing.

“That helped make it a lot more manageable for me, but keeping that enjoyment is the most important thing.

“A happy swimmer is a fast swimmer is what people always say and that’s definitely true. Just enjoying every day as it comes, you have to enjoy the journey to enjoy the overall result.

“In terms of balancing school and swimming, I think definitely just trying to plan out your time and trying to be as organised and efficient as possible.

“Work smarter not harder is something that I definitely took on at a young age and I think that really has benefited me.

“I make sure that I use most of the time that I have in the lessons rather than leaving it all until I get home and stuff like that.”

Swim England’s sport science sport medicine manager, Diane Elliot, also recently put together her top 10 tips to help manage the time spent between revising and training which you can check out by clicking here.