"I like that title," says Abbie Wood. "Make sure to use that in your article." 

What would a Tokyo Olympic hopeful want to be called? One to watch, perhaps. Rising star. Maybe even medal prospect. 

But not Abbie Wood. She wants to be called 'the best British swimmer you've never heard of' - while she still can. 

The 22-year-old's performances at last month's Manchester International - marking Adam Peaty et al's return to long-course racing - suggest that title's days are numbered. 

Wood, whose hometown of Buxton in Derbyshire is synonymous with water, won a stack of international medals as a junior, including European gold in 2015. 

But when she moved into the senior ranks aged 17, she struggled and three years later, her personal bests were no better. 

That culminated in a miserable debut at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, where she finished 20th in the 400m medley heats and nearly quit the sport. 

"Going to a Worlds at the age of 18 should have felt like a great achievement, but it didn't," said Wood, who turned to coach Dave Hemmings for an intervention. 

"I was expecting it to be the same as being a junior and it's a completely different world. It happens to most athletes but when you've been a successful junior, it feels like a disaster. 

"Why would I want to carry on with something that made me this upset and this embarrassed? 

"Dave used the example of Duncan Scott. He said: 'Duncan was like this in 2015, and now he's one of the best in the world.' It helped me put things into perspective." 

Fast forward four years and Wood is shedding seconds, clocking 2:09.38 in Manchester to crash through her 200m individual medley personal best by a full two seconds. 

She pushed Molly Renshaw, who came through at the same Derbyshire club, to a 200m breaststroke national record and lowered her own personal mark in the process, before beating Freya Anderson at the touch in the 200m freestyle. 

All that off the back of a star turn at the International Swimming League, breaking the five-year British short course record for the 400m medley in the Budapest bubble. 

Thank goodness the Olympics weren't last year. 

"I wouldn't have gone these times last year, I'm going two or three seconds quicker than 2020," she said. 

"I just stuck at it through lockdown, did my own workouts and tried to see it as a blessing. 

"It's all coming together and it's like a tidal wave. Everything is happening at once."

Wood plans to swim the 200m medley, breaststroke and freestyle at April's Olympic Trials, and has more than half an eye on a place on the 4x200m team too. 

Breaststroke has always been her favourite, but all medley swimmers feel they have an achilles heel and her's is backstroke, a multitude of sins hidden by the need to swim a single length. 

With Peaty and Scott to the fore, the strength of the British men's squad is no secret but Wood will be at the heart of a grandstand battle for selection on the women's side. 

She will fight it out in the 200m medley with Rio silver medallist Siobhan-Marie O'Connor, British record holder Hannah Miley and Commonwealth champion Aimee Wilmott. And that's just for a seat on the plane.  

"All of my events are stacked, and I'm going to have to go some to make the team," she said. 

"I get to train with Molly and Siobhan-Marie all the time and we're pushing each other on. They're friends first, competitors second." 

So what would the best British swimmer you've never heard of want to achieve if she makes Tokyo 2020? 

"It would be my first Olympic Games, so just making the team would be brilliant," she said. 

"But I have my goals. I want to make a final, and be a competitor rather than just going for the journey. I'll keep myself in an underdog mentality."