Jessica Ennis believes she has come to terms with being the poster girl of British athletics who is expected to achieve Olympic glory in London.
Ennis will be one of the favourites to win gold in the heptathlon this summer, despite losing her world title in Daegu last year.
And although the pressure of competing in front of 80,000 fans in London will be immense, Ennis has become accustomed to the high levels of expectation since returning from the injury which forced her to miss the previous Games in Beijing.
"I think it's going to be the case with quite a lot of athletes this year, we're going to be built up because the public wants us to do well and win as many medals as possible," Ennis said.
"I think if you just accept the fact that people pretty much put a medal around your neck already, if you know what you're capable of achieving and what it takes to win that medal and keep your head down and do what you need to do, I think you'll be okay."
But the 26-year-old is being careful not to get distracted by television appearances and magazine photo shoots as she focuses on the task at hand.
"It's a nice position to be in," she added. "Lots of things have come up, photo shoots and things like that.
"But once I get to May, competing in Gotzis (her only full heptathlon before London) and that sort of period, I'll just limit everything and make sure that I'm having my rest days and recovering and competing well and not having to travel to do shoots and things like that.
"A lot of things have come up already, exciting things that you want to do, but I'd kick myself if I did everything and then look back and thought: 'Oh I had a good time doing all these things but I didn't perform well.'
"There are certain things that I have to do for my sponsors which are all fitting in nicely, but for other things I have to think there's plenty of time after the Olympics and hopefully I can do those after."
