Rio Olympics 2016: Jazz Carlin savours her silver medal four years after London heartache almost made her quit
OH, how she is glad she did not quit swimming now.
Jazz Carlin was so “broken” after failing to qualify for London 2012 she even considered hanging up her goggles.
Yet the Welsh wonder talked herself out of retiring from the sport.
And Carlin’s decision paid off in spades tonight, as she stormed to silver in the 400 metres freestyle at Rio 2016.
Her time of four minutes and 1.23 seconds was comfortably her lifetime best.
And she was able to see off a challenge from American Leah Smith, as teen sensation Katie Ledecky swam away with the gold with a new world record.
Carlin, 25, said: “I'm absolutely over the moon.
"Four years ago I was in the stand cheering everyone on and now I've actually been a part of the team and to come away with a silver medal.
"I'm so grateful to everyone at home that's been supporting us and to get up and watch us at ridiculous hours of the morning.
"I just wanted to come here and give it absolutely everything and have no regrets. “Sometimes when you get out of a swim you think, 'Oh, I have a little bit left', or 'I wish I'd done that a bit better'.
"But I knew I was going to go in and give it absolutely everything and to put myself in the race first instead of always trailing behind trying to catch up.
“I thought, ‘I'm going to absolutely go for it and see what happens’."
Carlin's gong came immediately after Adam Peaty claimed 100m breaststroke gold with another new world record.
And she added: "I was in the call room watching Adam and I had goosebumps on the blocks really.
"To see someone who's your friend, your team-mate achieve a world record, become an Olympic champion right before my swim definitely got me pumped up.
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"For me to come away with a silver is pretty special but just a great night for GB in the pool.
"We've got a great team here and hopefully we can keep the momentum up for the rest of the week.
"Hopefully we can inspire the rest of the team because we've got some great chances."