Sport on Saturdays: She broke her first world record at 14 & won her first Olympic medal at 16.

2013. Three silver medals at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona.

2012. Two silver medals and a gold medal at the London Olympics.

2010. Eight medals – three of them gold – at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

2008. A gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

The above is just a brief timeline of some of the achievements of 22-year-old Emily Seebohm, one of our most talented Australian swimmers.

And today, she’s leaving for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

It’s a busy schedule for Seebohm in Glasgow. She swims in backstroke, freestyle, butterfly and relay events, and has been signed up to compete in the 50 metre, 100 metre and 200 metre backstroke, as well as the 200 individual medley and the 4x100t medley relay.

If her last Commonwealth Games sweep is anything to go by, Seebohm’s bound to do well at the 2014 Games. She’s already pegged by the experts to take out the gold in the 100m backstroke, at the very least.

After all, this is a girl who broke her first world record at the age of 14 and her first Olympic medal at the age of 16, when she was, incidentally, the youngest member of the Australia swim team.

But there’s a lot of hard work involved behind the scenes of all those medals. Seebohm started training intensively at the age of ten, and now does up to nine swimming pool sessions per week, as well as dry-land training sessions. She’s battled through sickness – at the 2011 National Championships, she collapsed from swine flu symptoms after completing the 100m backstroke.

She’s also battled intense pressure – at the 2012 London Games, Seebohm ended up in tears after missing out on the gold medal in the 100m backstroke. At the time, she explained that she was going through an (understandably) intensely emotional time and was worried about disappointing her family.

“I know I haven’t let anyone down but I think I let a little bit of myself down,” Emily said. “The emotions are really high and there is just so much pressure on the Olympics and you put so much pressure on yourself.”

Before she got on her flight to Scotland, I had a quick chat to Seebohm to ask her about her life and the Commonwealth Games. Here’s what she had to say.

On starting swimming lessons as a baby:

My mum did Learn to Swim and, through that, taught my three brothers and I how to swim. When she would be at the pool teaching her classes, my brothers and I would be doing our lessons. From there, I started doing club nights and progressed to a competitive level.  I’ve always absolutely loved competing against other swimmers and testing myself, so from there it just kept developing into something I loved.

 On what exactly is so great about swimming:

I love the competitive nature of the sport and going up against other great swimmers. I have always loved competing – being a very competitive person, that’s what keeps me going.

On the pressure that Australians put on swimmers to do well in their events:

I think we definitely always have pressure on us to do well. In the end, it’s all about improving your own times and if you do that, then you have done great.

 On coming down with Swine Flu in 2011:

That was the most difficult challenge I’ve encountered during my career. It was quite tough but something that I’m glad I was able to bounce back from and return to competing at my peak.

On what an average day looks like:

An average day involves waking up at 4:30am and going to training. My first session is a gym session until 6:15 am, followed by training, which goes through until roughly 8am. During my break, I like to get out and visit my horse to make sure she is fed before heading home. Once home, I like to refuel for the afternoon and then head back to training from 2:30 until 5pm, then it is off to home for dinner and a good night’s rest!

 On the Commonwealth Games:

I’m really excited, it will only be my second Commonwealth games and I can’t wait. I had a great time at Delhi in 2010 and it was a very successful event for me personally, I’m hoping that Glasgow can be just as successful and enjoyable as 2010 was.

On her own personal goal for the Commonwealth Games:

I just want to do myself proud and try to improve my times.

And in other sports news from the week… 

– The International Rugby Board has announced that the qualifying tournament for the IRB Women’s Sevens World Series 14/15 will take place in September, in Hong Kong. 12 different countries, including Japan, China, Fiji and Argentina are looking to qualify in the series, and join the core teams, of which Australia is one.

– 20-year-old Brittany Hepburn has become the first female baseballer to play first-grade men’s baseball in Newcastle. This is a huge step for her, considering that there are minimal other women who play in the top levels of men’s team competitions in the region. When asked about the achievement, Hepburn said: “It’s awesome that I’ll be the first female, but I reckon every girl that plays with the boys, whatever the grade, deserves credit.”

– Aussie netballer Liz Ellis has called for an ANZ Championship franchise in Canberra. Having run netball clinics for 20 years, Ellis said that the demand for them in Canberra is strong, and believes that Canberra is big enough to have their own senior netball team.

Have you seen anything in the sporting world that you’d like to talk about?