Few people find themselves planning their retirement aged 28, but the life of professional sportsman is a very different career. Already, before he's even hit 30, Dan Jervis has lived a life - travelled the world, represented his country, taken his body to the brink and done something few professional sports stars do - come out publicly to inspire the next generation. Jervis' parents always knew he was a water baby, but no-one, not even he, ever expected that one day he would be walking out poolside at not one, but two Olympic games. Born in Resolven, Neath, over the course of his career he appeared at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, earned two Commonwealth medals and claimed 11 national championship titles. Now, as he steps away from a life in the pool, Dan - who is now working as a painter and decorator alongside his dad - has reflected on a "surreal" chapter of his life and what comes next. Born in 1996, Dan’s connection to swimming began before he could even walk. When his grandfather suffered a heart attack the year Dan was born, swimming became part of his granddad's rehabilitation — and young Dan went along too. By the age of one, Dan was already swimming confidently, thanks to his grandparents' encouragement. His passion for the sport flourished at Glynneath Swimming Pool, where his older sister Rhian swam. Initially, swimming was simply a hobby but he was racing competitively by age seven. "I was absolutely a water baby," Dan said. "But I wasn’t the swimmer you’d look at and think, 'He’s going to the Olympics one day'. I was just a regular swimmer." Despite his modest start, Dan's determination grew in his teens as he progressed from the-then Neath Valley Swimming Club, to join Swansea's Swim Swansea club. Supported by his family, who made sacrifices to get him to training, Dan transitioned from being a casual swimmer to having seven training sessions a week. Looking back, Dan said: "I was very fortunate - my dad owns his own business as a painter and decorator, so he was able to start later and leave work earlier, which was a massive sacrifice that would have impacted his business' finances but he gave that up. "My family have always been my biggest supporters. The support they gave me wasn’t just to do with time and things. Something that my parents did that took huge pressure off me, was: whether I was swimming in a small competition or in the Olympic games - if I swam amazing or if I swam absolutely terribly, they would react exactly the same. They would know if I had done well or not, but regardless they were always there to lift me up." Dan joined the Welsh Skills Squad aged 14 before being called up for the Welsh youth team. "That was the first major selection for me," Dan said. "We had a trip to Luxembourg, which honestly felt like going to my first Olympics it was my first time competing abroad." Stay informed on everything Neath Port Talbot by signing up to our newsletter here As he got older, Dan experimented with multiple strokes, trying to figure out what would become his "speciality". "The only thing I can compare it to is when you're in Year 9 and you are picking your GCSE options. When you're younger, you practice all your strokes, then you go onto identifying your strengths and what races you tend to do well in. For example - I never did well in the breast stroke, literally anyone could beat me but I always did well in butterfly, back stroke and freestyle." This was recognised by Dan's coach Adam Baker, who pushed him towards the gruelling distance freestyle. "I will never forget when Adam said the dreaded words: 'I want you to train in the 1500m'. The 1500m is like no other event — an absolute killer," Dan shared. "When I did my first ever 1500m in Swansea, I had never been so nervous but after it, I knew that was my event. It sounds cheesy, but it wasn’t me that picked the event — the event picked me." His big breakthrough came at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where, at just 18, he defied expectations by winning bronze in the 1500m freestyle - and with a Welsh dragon on his chest. "That moment changed my life," Dan said. "I was just a boy from Resolven, and suddenly people recognised me on the street." As many athletes will say, the pride of being able to stand under Y Ddraig Goch added an extra element of pride. "Growing up in Neath, I was brought up to be a Welshman before anything. I am very very proud to be Welsh. So being apart of the Commonwealth Team, to me, felt like I was apart of the biggest team on the planet." But, he admits the sudden rise and pressure took its toll. Dan struggled with the weight of expectations in the following years and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics — a heartbreak that drove him to push even harder. "When I got into the pool at the Olympic trials, I completely freaked. I was one of the favourites to get in the team but in that moment, it was all too much. I ended up coming fifth. I remember being in the middle lane and watching the person next to me well deservedly take my place in the Olympic team. It broke my heart and I thought to myself that I would never let myself down again like that again." In 2018, he won Commonwealth silver and ultimately achieved his dream of a place in Team GB at the Tokyo 2020 Games. There, he finished fifth in the 1,500m freestyle, a moment he describes as one of the proudest of his career. "The moment I walked into that Olympic final — that's something I’ll remember forever," Dan commented. "It is one of the moments that I will look back on when I am old, and think 'that was the best moment of my life." In 2022, Dan made headlines for another reason — becoming the first elite British swimmer to come out as gay. While he’d told his family two years earlier, publicly sharing his truth was a deeply personal and powerful step. "I was terrified," Dan admitted. "I thought I’d lose friends, that my world would turn upside down but it turned the right way up. The reaction was amazing and I gained more from it than I'd ever thought I'd lose." Dan’s decision to come out publicly was partly motivated by his desire to be a visible role model. "I never saw a gay swimmer on TV when I was younger, and I knew I needed to be that for someone else," he explained. Just months later, Dan entered the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham as a gold medal contender. However, weeks before the event, he contracted COVID-19. While he recovered in time to compete, the aftereffects left him physically drained. "I swam my heart out, but I knew I wasn’t myself," he said. After finishing eighth in the 400m freestyle, Dan made the difficult decision to withdraw from the 1,500m event — a devastating blow for an athlete whose Welsh identity meant so much to him. "I knew I wasn’t going to get that Welsh national anthem played for me,” Dan said. “It broke me.” The months that followed, proved to be the most difficult time in Dan's whole career. "When I came home from the Commonwealths, I really struggled. I was in shock for the first few weeks. Then when I returned to the pool after summer break, something was different. When I got in, I just remembered that feeling of my dream disappearing. “For the year after that I dealt with other challenges which not only affected my mental health but served to chip away at my love for swimming. For the first time in my life, I didn’t know where I was going. I felt very alone." Despite his struggles, Dan was determined to finish his career on his own terms. He qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics — an emotional triumph that felt like a personal victory. "When I qualified, I let out a war cry," Dan recalled, "it felt like I’d won my own personal battle." Although he finished 15th in the 1500m, Dan says his true achievement was simply making the team. Exhausted and emotionally drained, Dan walked away from the sport feeling proud of all he had achieved, knowing he would retire. He announced his retirement in February. He is now working alongside his father as a painter and decorator, but has another big dream - he wants to work in media and television presenting. "I’d love to do something like The One Show or This Morning," Dan said. "I’m just trying to find my feet right now." Reflecting on his career, Dan believes his journey proves that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. "I’m a self-doubter, but swimming taught me that sometimes you just have to get over yourself and get out there and do it,” he said. "I’m just a normal kid from Resolven — but I worked my way to something special. If I can do that, I can do anything."