STEPHANIE Millward jets off to Brazil today as her Rio 2016 adventure begins in earnest but the Corsham swim star insists she won’t sink under the weight of pressure exerted by her third Paralympic Games campaign.

Nearly four years of preparation have come to an end for Millward, who won four silvers and a bronze at London 2012, and it’s now crunch time in the 34-year-old’s quest for gold in South America.

Millward is due to compete in as many as seven events and will begin her Rio campaign in the S8 400m freestyle next Thursday but is maintaining her signature carefree attitude as she bids to become the world’s best.

“There is pressure but to be honest, I don’t really think about it – I just want to swim for my country,” she said.

“I swim because I love swimming and I race because I love racing, so I’m just excited to be going to the Paralympics again and that’s all that matters to me.

“It’s so exciting and I’m just really looking forward to see all the things they’ve put on for all of us.

“London was a lot different because that was a home games but with this one being in Rio, I just think that it’s going to be full of fun and there are going to be some many amazing and interesting things going on.”

There have been plenty of major changes to Millward’s life in the build-up to Rio, including being reclassified into the S8 category for more severely physically impaired swimmers in June whilst also relocating to Manchester.

Since October last year Millward, who has multiple sclerosis, has trained at the Manchester Aquatics Centre – the British Para-Swimming National Performance Centre – but she doesn’t believe that any of that recent upheaval will knock her medal ambitions off-kilter.

Particularly after her transition to her new classification was soothed by her setting a new S8 100m backstroke world record of 1:12.94 seconds at July’s British Swimming Summer Championships in Sheffield.

“The change (of category) is something that was always going to happen with the way that my MS is and it’s just something that I’ve got to get used to,’’ she added.

“The only person you can ever beat is yourself – you don’t control anything else or what anyone else does. You can try and concentrate on 100m or 200m of a race but you race you own race and that’s all that matters.

“That world record was a fantastic achievement for me and when in the last few weeks of training, it’s a really big boost and it makes it all that extra bit exciting.

“Moving to Manchester has helped so much too. The amount of support that I’ve had here has been amazing. The nutritionist, the neurologist, the people that prepare our gym programmes; there are just so many people that are there to help you.”

Trowbridge's Aaron Moores also a member of Great Britain’s Paralympic swim team.