Last week, Rebecca Adlington was featured in most of the UK’s national newspapers.

As one of Britain’s most celebrated Olympic champions, that’s not particularly surprising, since the 25-year-old has won countless Olympic medals for her swimming, has an OBE, and holds the record for being Britain’s first Olympic swimming champion in 25 years.

But the coverage in last week’s newspapers was nothing to do with Rebecca’s dazzling achievements in the world of sport.

Instead, she created controversy, debate, and some choice words from Katie Hopkins over the fact she decided to have a nose job.

Despite all the credits she has to her name, despite all the years of training she put in to become one of the country’s household names, Rebecca Adlington has spent her late teens and early twenties plagued by insecurities about her looks.

Last year she admitted: “Every day I look in the mirror and go, ‘God, I’m not pretty, I’ve got a very big nose’. ‘That’s what most of the negative comments on Twitter are about – my nose.’

And in a conversation about body image during her stint on I’m a Celebrity (Get Me Out of Here) Rebecca was reduced to tears as she revealed her constant battle about the way she looks.

“It makes me very, very insecure that I have to look a certain way,” she said.

“For me, I was an athlete, I wasn’t trying to be a model, but pretty much every single week on Twitter I get somebody commenting on the way I look.”

Now, just months later, Rebecca has taken matters into her own hands and gone under the knife to reduce the size of her nose.

Of course, outspoken opinionist Katie Hopkins (what she actually does, I’m yet to discover) was straight on the bandwagon to criticise, calling it ‘a big mistake’.

She wrote in The Sun : “They picked on your nose, but you changed it. What’s next, Becky? Your eyes? Your hair? Your boobs? How many things are you going to change to keep up with their demands on you? Do not let these monsters get into your head.”

For once, Hopkins has a point.

Most young women suffer insecurities about their looks, myself included. We’ll never be 100% happy about how we look.

I can understand why Rebecca simply wants to improve her looks, after years of feeling inadequate.

But isn’t it a shame that someone who has done so much good for her country, who has achieved such inspirational things for someone of her age, feels obliged to bow to the mercy of cruel Internet trolls who have nothing better to do than scrutinise others behind the safety of their computer?

When you google Rebecca Adlington, one of the first suggestions that pops up is ‘Rebecca Adlington Nose Job’ or ‘Rebecca Adlington looks’.

We’re no longer talking about her Olympic achievements, it’s all about how she’s been pressured into changing how she looks.

And that’s such a shame.