Sharon Davies

Be honest, if your school swimming instructor looked like Sharon Davies, chances are you wouldn't even have been capable of getting out of your pyjama bottoms, let alone fish the brick from the bottom of the pool. Manmade obstructions and all that. Because quite simply, Miss Davies was the first waterbabe to ever whet the nation's schoolboys' appetites. Not just an Amazonian beauty, she was a junior international by the age of 11, and went on to swim in three Olympic Games (1976, '80 and '84) attracting medals as easily as small boys do verucas. Today Sharon is the BBC's face of swimming. But some of us remember her glorious form - dripping wet in skimpy lycra.

Did it annoy you that you attracted a lot of male viewers to the sport purely because of your appearance?
As long as I helped raise the profile of swimming, I wasn't really bothered. It's odd because more people recognise me now than when I was a swimmer constantly hidden behind goggles and a swimming hat.
Do today's swimmers confess that they had a huge crush on you?
A few have mentioned the pictures they've got of me and a lot of what they say is unprintable. Just before I interview them on TV, they'll say stuff like 'Oh I wish you were in the water with me now, Sharon' just to try and unsettle me. I enjoy that sort of banter so while they're standing there in just a tiny pair of Speedos, I'll say, 'I see you're looking pleased to see me boys.'
Did you find that when you quit and gave up the rigorous training you became a bit of a heffer?
Yeah, I was training six hours a day, six days a week and I could eat as much as I liked. Initially when I stopped swimming I continued to eat like a horse and pretty soon I looked like one. I did all the faddy diets but only sensible exercise shifted the three stone I put on.
What did you do straight after you quit swimming?
I appeared in a film for Channel 4 based around windsurfing, did loads of TV work including presenting the Big Breakfast, appeared in Gladiators and a few ads, notably one for Walker's crisps where I was dressed in black leather stuff. I always seem to end up in black fetish gear. I do like a high military boot though, it has to be said.
Wasn't that Gladiators stuff just a load of pantomime dames hitting each other with big cotton buds?
No, it was bloody physical and I got regularly battered. I snapped a cruciate ligament which is why I had to leave. They eventually asked me to come back and I snapped it again.
Have you ever misbehaved in a swimming pool?
Well I've swum naked in a private pool and the sea, of course. I've never thrown up in the pool but I have turned up for training with a severe hangover. And I used to regularly have a crafty wee in the pool. It's a great trick if you've got someone swimming behind you who you particularly dislike. It's a case of, 'Right, take that you bastard'.
Can you do a decent bomb?
Oh god yeah, it's one of the first things you learn. I did them to let my hair down. I remember at the Commonwealth Games in 1986 all the track guys came down and were doing bombs off the top diving board. We're talking guys like Linford Christie with million dollar legs, jumping into oblivion.
Do you still go swimming or are you sick of getting wet?
I love doing anything in the water but swimming. If I swim now, I can't help looking at the clock and I'm not as fast as I used to be so I tend to avoid it.
We hear you've got a tattoo somewhere intimate.
It's true. I had a tattoo of a pink elephant put on my arse when I was 21. A few years later I added to it so that it's now squirting water. I come from Plymouth, a sailor's town. so there's loads of tattooists there. Angela Rippon was done by the same tattooist. Can you believe she's got one too?
Frankly, we'd rather not think about it. You also had a boob job. Did you find that larger breasts made it harder to swim faster?
Well I only went back to the size I was before I had my son, a 36c. I suppose they might have created a bit of drag if I'd been the size of Dolly Parton. But then I'd have reverted to backstroke wouldn't I?