REBECCA ADLINGTON will make a “major announcement” at a press conference next Tuesday.

There has been speculation the 23-year-old double Olympic gold medallist from Beijing would retire from the sport in the wake of the London Games.

Adlington won a pair of bronze medals last summer, two of only three medals won by British swimmers, short of their base target of five.

The Mansfield athlete has been critical of British Swimming in recent months, claiming she felt “insulted” by the governing body following the review into the team’s underperformance in London.

She has also hit out at the amount of time it was taking to appoint a new head coach following the departure of Dennis Pursley after the Games.

Adlington said: “Why is it taking so long? We’ve been dying for them to appoint a head coach for months.

“Surely, that would make more sense for the head coach to be appointed before the review, even if it was just one who said ‘look this is semi-permanent, you might want to continue after the review but you might help us until then making these decisions’.

“A lot of us don’t know who we are going to at the moment. Who do we speak to? It’s awful what’s been going on.”

British Swimming is also without a national performance director after Michael Scott resigned following the review into London.

While she has decided against competing at Rio 2016, the Nova Centurion swimmer has taken her time deciding whether or not to continue.

Coach Bill Furniss is expected to be key to her decision.

Furniss has guided her since the age of 12 and he has been heavily linked with the Great Britain head coach role.