WHILST others might be spending their time tackling a mountain of brussels sprouts or figuring out when best to deliver the witty zinger they discovered within their cracker on Christmas Day, Jazz Carlin will be out pounding the streets.

After a successful pre-Olympics year, there will be no rest for the wicked on December 25 as the Swindon swim star aims to stay bang on the money in the lead up to Rio 2016.

Carlin, 25, helped herself to 400m and 800m freestyle gold at the European Short Course Championships in Isreal at the beginning of this month and also sealed bronze in the latter of those events at August’s World Championships in Russia.

The Wales and Great Britain star, who now lives in Bradford on Avon after switching her training to the National Centre for Swimming at the University of Bath, is out to make up for the heartbreak of missing out on a place at London 2012.

To that end, Carlin will be putting in plenty of hard graft in the lead up to next April’s British Olympic trials, including getting a few miles under her belt on Christmas Day.

“I’ve been in Israel, Indianapolis and New York, so it’s nice to be back home in the UK for Christmas because it’s been a while,” Carlin told the Swindon Advertiser.

“I don’t ever really stop training because you don’t want to lose it, especially over Christmas.

“There aren’t any pools open on Christmas Day, so I’ll be going out for a run and I don’t mind that but I’m not sure if that’s just because it means that I can eat a little bit more with my Christmas dinner.

“Eleven of us from Bath and Loughborough (British Swimming’s other National Centre) will be heading out to Australia in January to get away from the British weather and we’ll race in two big competitions there, so that should keep us ticking over.

“I prefer long course championships and the short course Europeans were optional but I wanted to race as much as I could this year and I’m glad that I did – it was great to get a new 400m PB (3mins 58.81secs).

“Four years ago, it was heartbreaking to miss out on a home Olympics, which was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it took me a long time to get back into the sport but I feel in a much better position now and I’m looking forward to a massive year next year.”

The Commonwealth Games gold medallist’s relocation to west Wiltshire came after she left the Wales National Pool in Swansea around a year ago, with coach Bud McAllister moving to Australia in early 2014.

Now training under coach David McNulty, she added: “At first, I was a little bit worried about the transition to training in Bath but it’s been going well and I feel like I’ve improved a few things with my coach.”