Why politicians could learn from Becky Adlington

It takes a very honest sports star to admit to something as human as insecurity. But as cameras rolled and flashbulbs popped today, Olympic swimming champ Becky Adlington seemed to have no problem baring her soul, talking with engaging honesty about the extraordinary life she’s led and the toll it’s taken on her both physically and mentally.

She’s announced her “retirement” from competitive swimming at just 23 years old, and despite taking questions for an hour and a half, she agreed with remarkably good humour to sit down for a round of TV interviews.

When I asked her about the horrible abuse she’s been subjected to from members of the public – people have insulted her appearance and weight, calling her a “whale” – I half-expected to be given the brush-off. Not a bit of it. She admitted to being hurt by it: “At first I didn’t understand it because I was, like, hold on I swim, I’m not a model, I’m not trying to be anything else… I just swim and people weren’t judging me on my swimming, they were judging me on the way I look.” But Adlington revealed that out of the water she was “very different…I’m a lot more insecure as a person”.

As she chatted away, no subject was off limits. I asked her about spending cuts, and she urged peple to “get involved”, petitioning the politicians to keep swimming pools open. And she even talked about the pressure to keep trim, and the temptation to indulge her penchant for chips.

I think this easy, down-to-earth honesty is the secret of Becky Adlington’s popularity – and it’s something MPs could learn a lot from. She says she’s the “girl from Mansfield”, and despite being a national sporting icon, you still believe it’s true. I sat next to her parents at the press conference, and remarked to them how easily she rattled on, despite all the massed ranks of media. And they told me that’s just how she is. What you see is what you get.

A lesson for politicians?

It’s a refreshing change from interviews with one too many ministers who seem to do little more than reel off the line to take, media-trained to within an inch of their lives, forgetting that the viewer would quite like the question answered with as little spin as possible.

I remember once when I was a political correspondent I did a “clip” with Liam Byrne, who’s now shadow work and pensions secretary. And although I asked at least half a dozen different questions, he repeated the same answer verbatim each time, so desperate was he to spin the story his way. I ended up using several of his answers, in an attempt to expose the artifice.

The late Mo Mowlam was perhaps the Becky Adlington of British politics – seemingly the same person on camera as off. In fact I thought of the former Northern Ireland secretary during today’s round of interviews when Adlington asked if she had time to go for a wee. Mo Mowlam once told an interviewer: “Hang on while I have a pee”, and left the door to the en suite toilet open so they could carry on chatting.

But that easy charm is a rare skill. Even someone as apparently unvarnished as Boris Johnson is, I’d suggest, weighing his words more carefully than you might at first think.

Perhaps comparing our top political figures to Adlington is a little unfair. After all, she – until today at least – was competing for her country not running it, so she has a freedom many of our ministers don’t. But part of her skill has been to connect with the public who have, as a result, taken her to their hearts. And that’s a skill our politicians have forgotten to finesse, too often resorting to spin where the unvarnished truth would have been so much more straight-forward. And, in the case of Chris Huhne, repeated, bare-faced lies are what we’ve come to expect from our political classes.

Of course as an Olympic medalist four times over, you’d expect Adlington to be familiar with the Olympic virtues of excellence, friendship and respect.

But I’d suggest in her capacity for plain-speaking the girl from Mansfield has created a fourth virtue all her own – and one the politicians would do well to emulate.