Adlington is Britain's most successful ever female Olympic swimmer having won the 400 metres and 800m freestyle at Beijing in 2008 and then followed it up with two bronze medals in the same events at London.

She was one of only two British swimmers to win a medal at London, along with Michael Jamieson, who claimed a silver in the 200m breaststroke.

It was a poor return for a sport which received more than £25 million ($39 million/€32 million) from Government agency UK Sport to prepare for London 2012. 

A panel has since been set-up to try to find the reasons for the disappointing performances.

It is headed by Craig Hunter, an independent member of British Swimming's Board, who was the Chef de Mission for Britain's Paralympic team at London 2012. 

Hunter is the only Briton on the panel, which is made up of American Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' coach; Irishman Conor O'Shea, the coach of Premier League rugby champions Harlequins; and German Thomas Lurz, who won the Olympic silver medal in the 10 kilometres open water swimming at London 2012 and bronze at Beijing 2008.

It is completed by Australian Michael Scott, British Swimming's performance director.

"You can never get enough help or gain enough knowledge after any sporting event, but I wish they'd asked me or my coach, Bill Furniss, because we're the ones who really know what's going on poolside," said Adlington in an interview published today in the Mail on Sunday. 

Britain's performance director Michael Scott spends too much time at home in Australia, claims Rebecca Adlington

Adlington has claimed that she is unlikely to carry on competing until Rio 2016, when she will be 27.

She has hinted at what she believes to be the underlying problems with Britain's failure to do better at London 2012. 

"Michael Scott is in Australia a lot and the others [on the panel] don't know what's going on here," she said.

"Britain is very different from America or Australia or China.

"We don't have the collegiate system, for starters.

"We have to make do with the tools at our disposal."

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