Alice Kinsella just wants to have fun after a tough Paris build-up

So bad did it get that at one stage Kinsella, the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist and mainstay of the GB team for several years, considered calling it a day for good.

Having begun taking the contraceptive pill as treatment for acne, Kinsella developed anxiety and depression.

“It was like my body had forgotten how to do everything,” the Park Wrekin star recently explained.

Gymnastic skills which had been second nature since childhood suddenly became impossible.

“I’d go into pretty much every single piece thinking: ‘I don’t really know what’s going to happen’,” she explains.

“I started to struggle really bad mentally, to the point I was probably going to give up.”

Following conversations between Kinsella, her coaches Christine Still and Brett Ince and her mother Karen it was decided she should stop taking the pill and gradually her confidence returned.

After winning bronze at May’s European Championships, she heads to her second Olympics claiming to be in some of the best form of her career.

“I always tell myself if I was able to get through last year then I feel like I'll be able to get through anything,” says Kinsella. “It's definitely made me stronger. I feel fitter, stronger and the best I have for a very long time.”

Kinsella had experienced low points in the past, albeit none quite so serious. She has talked honestly and openly about her battles in a sport where months if not years of work can be wasted by a split-second mistake.

Yet through it all, Kinsella has prevailed. There is surely no greater demonstration of her toughness than the fact she helped Britain secure their first Olympic team medal in 93 years while competing with torn ankle ligaments.

Three summers on from that triumph in Japan she heads to France a wiser head.

“I feel like I've definitely matured, not only in myself but with my gymnastics,” she says. “I feel like competing has become a little bit easier this time around.

“I am not saying that I don't get nervous, I obviously do, but I think I am starting to enjoy it a lot more now, especially after having quite a tough time last year.

“But this year, I am feeling super confident going into Paris and I'm just really happy with that.”

The competition, which begins tomorrow with individual qualification, promises to test the strength in depth of a GB squad which has consistently been among the world’s best in recent years.

Kinsella is the only member of the team from three years ago returning with Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova both missing out through injury. Ondine Achampong, part of the team which won silver at the 2022 world championships, is also absent after tearing knee ligaments in April.

That has opened the door for Beckie Downie, who made her Olympic debut in Beijing 16 years ago, to return for a third Games. Kinsella’s Birmingham 2022 team-mate Georgia Mae Fenton is also in the squad along with two of the youngest members of Team GB in 17-year-old Ruby Evans and 16-year-old Abigail Martin.

Kinsella, whose consistency on all four pieces of apparatus make her a contender in the individual competitions, is happy to accept the role of mentor, if not unofficial leader.

“Since I've gotten older and since Tokyo, I kind of haven't given myself a goal,” she explains, when asked about her medal prospects.

“I just want to go and enjoy it, go and get a different experience than I did in Tokyo.

“Obviously I would like to make a few finals but I just want to go and have some fun.

“That's my main goal and to make sure that the rest of the girls have fun too and an experience they'll never forget.

“It's everyone's dream to go to the Olympics and come away with a medal.

“Going into that team final three years ago, we didn't really expect much. We just wanted to go out and enjoy it.

“That's what we did and coming away with that medal was a dream come true and it was so surreal.

“Now, this time, we just want to go in, enjoy it, have some fun, not put too much pressure on ourselves and cheer each other on.”