Shannon Thompson is 14 years old. She lives with
her mum, dad and little brother, Jamie, in Leeds and
she goes to Eccleshill School. She's just an ordinary
teenager except Shannon is one of Britain's
s top swimmers. She's the British under-16 100m
freestyle champion. Shannon is always busy - she
trains hard and she studies hard.
Shannon's day starts at 6 o'clock. She gets up,
has breakfast and then her mum takes her to
10 the swimming pool. Her coach, David, is at the
pool and she trains for two hours. After training,
she catches the bus to school. Shannon's a good
student and she likes French and Spanish but her
favourite lesson is PE - of course! She has lunch
15 with her friends at school. Afternoon lessons finish
at 3:30 and Shannon returns to the swimming pool
for more training with her coach. She often swims
non-stop for two hours! When she gets home, she
has dinner with her family, but she never watches
20 TV in the evening. She goes to her bedroom and she
does her homework. She's usually very tired, so she
goes to bed at 9:30.
Shannon says: 'I'm always very busy with schoolwork
and swimming but I usually have some free time at
25 weekends. I often go shopping with my friends on
Saturday afternoons. Sometimes my friends come to
my house on Saturday evenings. We have pizza and
watch films or listen to music.
I'm very serious about my swimming. My ambition
30 is to be an Olympic swimming champion like
my hero
Rebecca
Adlington she's got Glossary
four Olympic medals!
I love swimming and I
except: only that
35 love my busy life!'
freestyle: a free choice o
the style to use
busy: engaged in activity
trains: prepares for an