Stephanie Rice has enjoyed her time on the publicity train but now she wants to step off.
The triple Olympic gold medallist’s life has become constant fodder for newspapers, magazines and television stations since her starring performances in Beijing.
And even though Rice is no shrinking violet, she wants to put the shutter down on her current exposure levels.
“When you know you get sick of reading about yourself, then you know that people must be like 20 times that,” she said today.
“I am looking forward to that whole side of things calming down and for what I love doing to be the focus.”
That is swimming just in case anyone has forgotten because of the enormous recent attention on her love life and party going.
The post-Olympic blues that afflict so many top-flight athletes following the highs of the quadrennial sporting extravaganza are her next challenge.
But she felt well equipped to deal with the limelight and motivational problems that have plagued the likes of Ian Thorpe, Cathy Freeman and Jodie Henry.
“I don’t feel satisfied with where my swimming career is at the moment and I definitely want to improve on what I did in Beijing in terms of my times and things like that,” she said.
“I love it, I love travelling and being a part of the team and I love competing and racing and training.”
“I think everyone is different and I am definitely motivated to keep swimming.
“I think my motivation levels are fine.”
Rice hoped that as she returned to full-time training the media glare would lessen because of her more routine existence.
But there is no doubt she will keep gaining attention for sometime.
The fortunate thing for her is unlike Thorpe, Freeman and Henry, she has a personality better suited to the spotlight.
The attention-seeking swimmer has felt the barbs of being labelled a show pony but has an impressive grasp of the media game for a 20-year-old.
“It is a bit upsetting when you read things that you know aren’t true and the people around you know they are not true but the whole other population don’t have a clue,” she said.
“It is kind of funny but I think I have the personality to deal with it and laugh it off and not worry about it too much.”
She wasn’t making any bold predictions about her performances in the pool, saying she didn’t expect to be back to her best at next year’s world championships trials.
On being unfit, Rice said: “Extremely.
“It is pretty bad when you see like 14-year-olds lapping you and people you normally absolutely whip in training and they are racing you and it is pretty embarrassing.”
The Queenslander has skipped this weekend’s World Cup meet in Sydney as she tries to get back into shape.
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