Why swimmer Clark won't let epilepsy or day job slow her down

Imogen Clark refuses to quit. Nothing a doctor could say to get her out of the pool, nor the hard work it takes to keep her in the pool, makes a difference to her determination.

The Derbyshire swimmer is a British 50m breaststroke champion and record holder who works a 40-hour week to fund her sporting career.

She is also the swimmer who had to be saved from the water when she had her first epileptic seizure in the pool.

As the 27-year-old prepares for her second Commonwealth Games appearance, having won a silver medal in her first in Birmingham four years ago, she admits that giving up on swimming would have been the easy way and was, in fact, the recommended option at one point.

That call came when Clark had to be fished out of the pool by her coach in an incident that would eventually lead to her being diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 14.

"Being diagnosed was a rough point, I didn't know what it meant and how to deal with it," she told BBC East Midlands Today.

"A lot of advice from doctors was for me to stop swimming.

"With the medication that I'm on, I can live a life pretty much without ever really knowing I'm epileptic. I'm fortunate to say that, because that's not the case for everyone."

Making her epilepsy known to everyone around her at the pool is a way that Clark has remained in the sport.

She makes sure she wears a distinctive swim cap in the pool and puts lifeguards on notice whenever she is in the water.

And because of her photosensitive epilepsy, Clark has had to make competition organisers aware of her condition to ensure lighting - which includes camera flashes from assembled media during medal ceremonies - does not become a problem.

Dealing with the condition has become an everyday part of her life as an athlete – but so has her day job with disability sport charity, Activity Alliance.

While she might be one of England's top medal prospects at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games starting this week, the event – just like her sporting career in general – is her side hustle.

Clark holds down a full-time job to fund her career as an elite athlete because the event she excels in has not been an Olympic sport.

That could all change for the Los Angeles Games, with the 50m breaststroke being added to the 2028 schedule.

But, as it stands, she is still working to race and racing to win.

"I still love it, otherwise I wouldn't be turning up every day," Clark said.

"I am not a funded athlete so there is no real, if you like, perks of me swimming. My perk is I want to be here - there is no other reason that is keeping me here apart from that."

Clark was a teenager when she lost what athlete funding she previously did have, as she chose to focus on the one non-Olympic distance.

Adam Peaty, the most decorated British swimmer of all time, shares Clark's panache for the 50m breaststroke. But the difference is that he is also the fastest man the world has ever seen over 100m in the same stroke.

Reflecting on the Olympic Games that have previously passed her by, Clark feels that the "sky's the limit" for what she could have achieved if she had the financial backing to train and compete full-time.

"I struggled a lot coming to grips with that," she said. "I missed out on a lot of world championships because I've not had the chance to qualify for the 50.

"I think about the life I could have lived and how much harder I could have trained without having to work a full 40 hours a week as well as having to train. It's hard to think about, but I'm at peace with it and I think when I leave the sport I will be a better, well-rounded person having lived real life on top of training."

Clark admits the daily juggle of working full-time and training at Repton School – which has a swimming programme that is overseen by former Aquatics GB national coach Jamie Main - has previously had her questioning her future in the sport.

"It really has been challenging, but every time I've thought about retiring there is something that has been keeping me in," she said.

"People look at me as an older swimmer who is not at every major meet and is not on funding, and think 'why are you doing it?' But there is something that keeps me grounded in the sport and something that keeps me wanting to get up in the morning to do it.

"But it is exciting that I keep getting to do it, regardless of everything else I'm still one of the best in the country and challenging those world competitors. So why not?"

And for that reason, even when she tells herself that she will "manage expectations" in Glasgow, she is determined to be a "real challenger" who would "love to medal again" at the Commonwealth Games.