Olympic swimmer Hannah Miley hugged mum after being told of her MBE

Double Commonwealth champion and triple Olympic swimmer Hannah Miley has another award to add to her haul after being made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

But as she had moved house, the official letter had been sent to her parents, Carmel and Patrick, and rather than the Royal Mail, it was her mum who ended up delivering the good news.

“She came over and she didn’t know what it was, and then I opened it and I had to re-read it several times and then I burst into tears and then hugged my mum and my mum burst into tears as well. It was just lovely,” said the 32-year-old.

“To be able to share that moment with her was very, very special,” she added.

“It meant the world to me. I put a 100% effort into my sport for so many years, and I don’t do it for the accolades, I don’t do it for the rewards, at the end of it, I do it because I love what I do and I love being able to make an impact and help people.

“But to get an MBE for all that I’ve done, it’s kind of cool.”

Made an MBE for services to swimming and women in sport, her career started at Garioch Amateur Swimming Club in Inverurie, where she was coached by her father.

And from humble beginnings training in her local pool, she would go on to represent her country at European and World Championships, Commonwealth and Olympic Games, winning 50 medals across the world stage.

Highlights from her career include qualifying in 2008 for her first Olympics in Beijing and winning Gold in 2010 at the European Championships in Hungary in the 400m Individual Medley, setting a new championship record.

In Delhi, she won Gold in the 400m Individual Medley setting a new Games record. Her successes continued, winning silver at the Fina World Championships in 2011 and qualifying for the London Olympics in 2012.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, she retained her 400m Individual Medley crown.

She continued to compete on the world stage until 2018, winning a silver at her fourth consecutive Commonwealth Games in 2018 on the Gold Coast, a bronze at the European Championships in Glasgow and competing at her third consecutive Olympic Games two years earlier in Rio in 2016.

During the coronavirus pandemic, she gave hundreds of free online classes to clubs, swimmers and organisations to help inspire and motivate anyone needing support with nutrition, exercise and motivation.

And she is also working on a programme to help educate women on menstrual health. She said when she was a young athlete there wasn’t a negative perception but that “it wasn’t really dealt with”.

“I was just told to go on the pill and that was it and at that time that was the information we had,” she said. She is now helping to educate female athletes about how to not be “held back by their hormones, to actually realise that they are so much more than just the days that they feel a bit off”.

The honour also recognises her work in Scottish Swimming’s Young Volunteer Programme, which gives young athletes a voice in shaping the future of the sport.