At the British Swimming Championship in Manchester a few weeks ago I was really pleased to secure my qualifying time for the European Championships in June. It's a case of waiting and seeing now which team will head to Berlin for the tournament but I would really hope to be taking part.

Ahead of Sheffield I've been in heavy weights training, and I've been taking antibiotics for an illness but I was still looking to race hard over the weekend and use the event as a training aid. The meet for me was more about race practice and posting a good time than setting a personal best and I definitely put my body under pressure and had to "race tough". I still swam under the European championships qualifying time in both the heat and the final it was just a lot more painful experience than in Manchester 3 weeks ago but I'm pleased with how the meet went overall.

The British International Disability Championships is one of the best attended events in the disability swimming calendar, so it's always an event I enjoy. It's particularly good to get the opportunity to get some of the other big nations such as Brazil and Germany coming over.

Between now and the European Championships I'll be competing in the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in May. I'll be on the way back from a hard training camp in Majorca the week beforehand but I'm hoping that it'll give me some "solar power" to medal at the event! It's not often that I compete at a multi-sport event so it would be great to try and catch some of the other events such as the athletics and wheelchair basketball.

Over the last few years the event has widened coverage of Paralympic sport in the media, and with this year's BT Paralympic World Cup being broadcast on Channel 4 I think it will really help to reach new audiences.

I've got a busy schedule between now and London 2012, and I'm going to be recording my journey to the Games through a new BT campaign that will bring together all sorts of stories between now and 2012 and beyond.


The campaign is looking for people from all walks of life to tweet, photograph, film and blog about their experiences of London 2012, or to use the Games as the inspiration for their creativity. As well as athletes and people involved in the Games they're asking members of the public to apply to become Storytellers at www.bt.com/london2012. I think it'll produce some fantastic stories – everyone has such different experiences of the Games and it'll be interested to see how this is captured by the public.

It's now less than 500 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and as a BT ambassador I was delighted to be invited to their celebratory 500 days event at the BT Tower a few weeks ago. It was great to catch up with the other BT ambassadors like Lee Pearson and Dame Kelly Holmes, as well as other Olympic and Paralympic faces such as Rebecca Adlington, who launched the stunning fireworks display.  Then, a couple of days ago, I was invited to place the last tiles on the pool at the Olympic Park Aquatics Centre.  It was amazing to see first-hand where I hope to be competing in 2012.  It's a fantastic venue and competing in front of thousands of fans there is an opportunity that I'd relish.

I'm not really nervous about the fact that it's 500 days to go – it's a good point as the Games are close enough to start getting excited about, but far away enough that I know that I have enough time to plan properly for them. I'm in a good place with my training and preparation and I know, that when the time comes, I'll be ready to compete and perform at my best. It's nice to see the public start to get excited about the Games though, and I think that will only continue to increase as we get closer.

Liz Johnson is a BT Ambassador.  BT is the official communications services partner for London 2012 and has launched its search for creative members of the public to become the Storytellers of the London 2012 Games. For info and to apply click here