There are few people on earth privileged enough to call themselves an Olympic champion and Anna Hopkin is not quite used to it yet.

“It’s still weird hearing people say that. It is quite surreal,” she tells GiveMeSport Women. “I think seeing everyone’s reaction at home has made it sink in a little bit but I don’t know if it really ever will.”

The British swimmer claimed gold in the 4x100m mixed medley relay at Tokyo 2020, alongside Kathleen Dawson, James Guy and Adam Peaty –– ensuring Team GB’s best-ever Olympic medal haul in the pool.

In an exclusive interview after her triumph, Hopkin reveals how she felt racing against the great Caeleb Dressel, life inside the Tokyo bubble and which sport she’d give a go if she wasn’t a swimmer.

Reminiscing on her famous relay win, Hopkin remembers her thoughts as she stood ready to dive for the final leg of the race. Britain had built up a six-second lead, yet the freestyle swimmer was up against Dressel –– a seven-time Olympic gold medallist, who holds numerous records across freestyle events.

Hopkin says she was trying not to worry about who was next to her and that the chaos of a medley race means it’s important to just focus on your own job.

“You’ve kind of just got to think about your lane and not really look at how far you are in front of this person. Obviously, I knew Dressel was going in after me and we knew I needed to have about a six or seven-second lead over him, but I just swam my own race.”

While there were undeniable nerves at the prospect of bringing home the gold medal for the team, Hopkin admits she knew victory was secured as she turned to swim her final length.

“When I turned and I saw I still had quite a bit of water between me and him [Dressel], I knew down that last length we’d done enough. It was almost like a lap of honour kind of thing and it did feel amazing to touch the wall and win it for the team.”

The 25-year-old claims she had the “easy job”, yet this win comes after years of hard work and intense dedication. Indeed, having put so much preparation into these Games, especially under such difficult circumstances, Hopkin stresses the goal was always to win gold.

“In a way just getting a medal would have been incredible, but I know for James and Adam the only real option was gold and that transcended into me and Kathleen.”

Having won gold at the European Championships in 2020, Britain were favourites heading into the Olympics. And while a world record was in the back of Hopkin’s mind, having come so close in Budapest, the feeling of finally breaking it in Tokyo consolidated her knowledge that the quartet are the best in the world.

“I think it shows that we fully deserved the win,” Hopkin emphasises. “We’re the fastest team ever and that just shows that we did everything we possibly could. We all swam amazing legs and I wasn’t going to slow down even when I was ahead because we wanted that world record.

“It just makes the whole thing more special and obviously to be a world record holder is an incredible achievement for me personally. And to do it with that team as well was just incredible.”

Team GB won eight medals in the pool this year and Hopkin believes this monumental achievement is down to a shift in mentality, where the team has an all-encompassing “belief” among one another.

The Brit is trained by Mel Marshall, who also coaches Adam Peaty. Hopkin says the influence of both has inspired the entire British swimming team.

“Adam’s obviously been training with Mel ever since he was young and her huge thing is belief and she drives that into us before every race. She just says ‘believe in yourself and don’t let anyone else affect what you think is going to happen.

And Adam is such a huge part of it as well. I think he’s really driven a change in British swimming and we all expect to win now. It’s not just about making the team, it’s not just about making finals, it’s about winning medals now.

Like all other athletes at this year’s Games, Hopkin was forced to live inside the Tokyo bubble and had to contend with “all sorts of restrictions.” Many sports stars spoke openly about their struggles of living in such an environment, however, Hopkin praised Team GB for the great support they provided during the competition.

“I think I found it quite easy to cope with,” she admits. “British swimming prepared us really well and we were ready for what was to come. There were all sorts of restrictions in place and we expected that, but as a team, you kind of help each other and support each other through it and there were a lot of systems in place for anyone that was struggling as well.”

One of the downsides of the bubble was that athletes were unable to attend other sporting events outside of their own discipline. Nonetheless, Hopkin says she still watched the Games as much as she could on TV. Gymnastics has always been one of her favourite sports to watch, however, speed climbing is the one she really got into this time around.

“The speed climbing is ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like it and it’s just a great watch. I love watching gymnastics and that’s probably my favourite sport to watch, but I really want to give speed climbing a go now.”

Hopkin is home from Japan now and has been part of Bridgestone’s ‘Chase Your Dream, No Matter What' campaign.

Speaking at the Bridgestone Olympic Experience Roadshow, Hopkin stresses: “It’s nice that everyone can get a taste of the Olympics here and just bring it alive in the UK, so hopefully I’ll be able to speak to people and show my medal and maybe make it a bit more real for everyone.”

And given Hopkin’s success in Tokyo, as well as the rest of the British swim squad, there is every chance that the next generation has already been inspired to get into the pool and start dreaming of Olympic glory.

“Yeah, I hope that’s the case,” Hopkin says. “I think it’s more important this year than any before because obviously the last two years have been really tough, especially at grassroots level.

“I hope that seeing the success of the swimmers in Tokyo just inspires people to get back involved again and stick with it. Hopefully, it's not long before things become a bit more normal and training gets back to normal and, you know, when you're young you can bounce back from anything, so hopefully, kids see that and they'll get back into the sport again.”

Anna is speaking on behalf of Team GB and Olympic partner, Bridgestone, as part of its Olympic Experience Roadshow. Bridgestone is a proud partner for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games.