The 26-year-old from Newport in Wales was previously ranked number one in the world in the 100 metres breaststroke SB6 category after winning gold at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships and then consolidating it with victory at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics.

But at last year's 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships in the Netherlands, she lost her world title to formidable American swimmer Mallory Weggemann and took bronze, with teammate Charlotte Henshaw picking up silver.

But Johnson claimed that since Beijing 2008, she has only been focused on gold at London 2012 and will be maintaining that attitude at the European Championships in Germany.

"I do not think it's gold at all costs in Berlin," Johnson said.

"I'd be lying if I didn't say everything I do now or everything I've done really since Beijing has been towards London 2012.

"By Berlin I will be 75 per cent of the way through the four year plan and obviously I would love to win a gold medal and that is my target.

"But, if I've done everything in advance for the race I'm in for and I don't win, then so be it."

Despite going from World Championship gold in her favourite event in 2006 to bronze in 2010, Johnson says it is a sign of the ever improving strength in-depth in Paralympic swimming.

"If you were to compare the colour of the medals from the 2006 World Championships, where I won gold, to last year where I won bronze then yes it would seem a setback but I was only 0.1 seconds off silver and the actual field was so much stronger," said Johnson (pictured with cyclist Jody Cundy).

"Last year I was only half way through my preparations for London so the colour of the medal wasn't overly important.

"But obviously I was disappointed because at the end of the day I did not win the race.

"It's really good for the sport though that swimming is growing all the time.

"If you've won a swimming medal then you must have worked very hard to win it."

Johnson first took up swimming at the age of three following advice that it would help with her cerebral palsy and aged eight, she joined her first swimming club before making it on to the British team just six years later.

Despite qualifying for the Sydney 2000 Paralympics, she was reclassified just before the event and did not go, a disappointment that made her even more determined to do well in future years.

In 2006 she claimed three gold medals at the IPC Swimming World Championships, successfully building on the silver medal she had won at the Athens 2004 Paralympics, before her greatest moment to date came when she took gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, a medal she dedicated to her mother, who lost her battle with cancer just before the start of the Games.

After years of training and sacrifices, Johnson was not just delighted at winning gold in Beijing but overjoyed that it lived up to all her expectations.

"It's bigger, better and more rewarding then you can ever imagine," she explained.

"You train in the anticipation that it's going to be the best feeling in the world but it was so much more rewarding than that.

"It puts into perspective all of the choices that I had to make early in life when I was still in school and couldn't go on a school trip that everyone else was going on or attend a birthday party.

"I guess the sacrifices I had to make were all worth it."

The eight days long 2011 IPC Swimming European Championships will be one of the last major gatherings before the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The event will take place from July 3-10 at Berlin's Europasportpark, a venue which has already hosted multiple aquatic events in previous years including the International Open German Swimming Championships.

Johnson will be one of around 500 swimmers from 40 countries competing for medals while the likes of Britain's Ellie Simmonds and Russia's Oxana Savchenko are also set to be in action.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
September 2010: Johnson vows to bounce back at London 2012
August 2010: Liz Johnson - Appetite for Paralympic sport growing ahead of London 2012
April 2010: Liz Johnson - Moving to Bath forced me out of my comfort zone