WALES' Jazz Carlin watched the Olympics on television four years ago, meaning her road to Rio has been one to redemption too.

She knows all about the triumph and all about the struggle but the swimmer nicknamed Pitbull has never been short of fighting spirit.

Despite medals at world, European and Commonwealth level, the 25-year old missed out on London 2012 selection after an untimely bout of glandular fever and tonsillitis.

She toyed with quitting and took three months out of the water before finally deciding to commit to what was then a very long and distant road to Rio.

Carlin also had to cope with her long-time coach, Bud McAllister, relocating to Australia, and also had to switch her training from Swansea to Bath.

However, she credits her 800m freestyle gold at the Commonwealth Games two years ago as giving her the belief that the road to Rio might not be another dead end.

And it’s a decision that paid priceless dividends as she stormed to 400m freestyle silver on Sunday, clocking 4:01.23, a second personal best in the space of 12 hours after she’d shown her potential by swimming the second quickest time in the heats.

American Katie Ledecky, who threatens to dominate these Games like no other athlete, stormed to victory but Carlin won the race within a race in Rio.

“It’s been an incredible four years ago, back in London I was sat in the stands but now I’m part of the team and I’ve got a silver medal too,” said Carlin.

“I set my alarm to watch Becky (Adlington) win her medals in Beijing eight years ago and it’s amazing to think people are doing the same for me.

“I just wanted to give it everything and have no regrets or have anything left. I put myself in the race and really went for it. Katie is on another level but I just swam my own race and hoped it would be enough.

“It takes failures to get you to success and having Rio to aim for has been my motivation for so long now. I’m the swimmer that never misses a metre in training and I’ve done everything for this moment.

“This has not been an overnight thing. I love racing, as a young girl it was my favourite thing of the week, racing down a length of my local pool and trying to be as fast as possible.

“I’m one of the seniors on this team and to come away with a medal is unbelievable. We’ve got world champions, world record holders and champions in this team and we’ve depth and loads of promising youngsters.”

Just minutes before Adam Peaty had given her the perfect inspiration, storming to Great Britain’s first gold of the Games as he won the 100m breaststroke title in a world record.

“I had goosebumps watching Adam, seeing my friend break the world record and become an Olympic champion really pumped me up for my race,” Carlin added.

“This is a great team to be a part of and hopefully we can keep that up for the rest of the week and this will inspire a few people too.

“I don’t think I’m going to get much sleep now but I’ve got a few days off and I can’t wait to race again.

“I’m targeting both the 400m and 800m and I do enough training to be competitive in both.

Meanwhile, Georgia Davies finished fifth in her 100m backstroke semi-final to rank tenth overall, missing a place in the final by half a second.

South Wales Argus: