AS she gazed out of the window at West Rainton Primary School, watching the snow begin to flutter from the sky, Amy Tinkler finally felt at home.

“As soon as I got out of the car, I thought, ‘Where’s my coat?’” joked the Bishop Auckland gymnast, who stole the nation’s hearts when she won a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics at the age of just 16. “That’s how I knew I was back home.”

Since competing in Rio, Tinkler has been on quite a journey, both metaphorically and literally. Her life has changed in a myriad of ways, but perhaps the most obvious is the physical relocation that saw her leave the South West Durham Gymnastics club where she took her first tumbles at the age of two for a new home at the South Essex club in Basildon.

The move has enabled her to join an elite training group that includes double Olympic champion Max Whitlock, so it is easy to see why, from a professional view, it made perfect sense.

That didn’t make it easy though, and Tinkler freely admits she still misses her native North-East. From the late-night Skype sessions with her former team-mates at South West Durham, to the occasional trips north with her mother, Nora, who has joined her in relocating to the opposite end of the country, Tinkler remains that same ebullient County Durham girl that proved so infectious as she bounced and back-flipped her way into British sporting history two years ago.

When she was offered the chance to conduct a coaching session at West Rainton to help promote the England team’s impending trip to the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast, Tinkler jumped at the opportunity to return to some familiar surroundings. Not, however, that she will ever really get used to the way in which her own life has changed.

“I still can’t really get my head around everything that’s happened,” she said, as a gaggle of excited primary school pupils tried to steal a peek at her through their classroom door. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being recognised and people knowing who I am.

“I’ll be walking down the street and someone will come up for a picture, or a mum will come up and ask about the best way for her daughters to get into gymnastics. It’s great, but I don’t think it’s something you ever really get used to.

“It still seems weird that I’m someone that complete strangers know and recognise. That’s still probably been the biggest change since Rio. It’s nice to have that, but it still makes me feel strange.

“To be honest, it’s even more when I come back here and come home. That’s the weirdest thing because it’s like, ‘This is where I grew up – this is where I used to be where no one knew who I was’. It’s great to know people from home are taking an interest in me though. It’s nice to have that support where my roots are.”

The level of interest is set to intensify in the next few months, with Tinkler preparing for a hectic year that should see her compete in three major championships.

The Commonwealth Games come first, and are a major target for the teenager given they are the only major event she is yet to tackle in the senior ranks. With most of the leading nations absent, the Commonwealths should offer a good chance of further medals, particularly in her preferred discipline of floor, and she has already been confirmed on a ten-strong squad that will also feature Claudia Fragapane, who won four gold medals at the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Glasgow will play host to this summer’s European Championships, and with the World Championships due to take place in Doha in October, Tinkler will not be short of competition before the end of the year.

“It’s a big year,” she said. “It’s unusual to have three majors in one year, but hopefully I’ll stay fit and get to all of them.

“We go to the Commonwealths in four or five weeks’ time, and it’s going to be great. I didn’t do Glasgow because I was too young, so this will be my first Commonwealth Games. It’s the only major championships that I’ve never competed in, so it was always going to be a big target for me. It’s the first time I’ve been in this kind of competition since the Olympics really, so I’m really excited to get out there and compete now.”

She is especially keen to put a difficult 2017 behind her, with the last 12 months having been punctuated by a succession of injury concerns.

She was forced to undergo ankle surgery last summer, and a shortened preparation period meant she had to settle for a 17th-place finish at October’s World Championships at Montreal. That was a decent result given the obstacles she had to overcome just to make it to Canada, but she is capable of so much more.

That was apparent as she claimed the women’s all-around title at this month’s English Championships in Redbridge – she also won national honours on the vault and uneven bars – and crucially, she has displayed no ill effects from the aftermath of last year’s surgery.

“The injury has completely healed,” she said. “It’s not around at the minute, and hopefully I can keep it that way. I’ve just done the English Championships, and I did really well there. That was a bit of a relief really.

“I knew I was feeling good in myself, but you never really know exactly where you’re at until you compete. It’s a relief to know everything alright compared to where I was at last year. I had a quite a few injuries, so getting back out there and doing well was really important for me.”

* Npower is proud to be an Official Partner of Team England and are encouraging the nation to show their support for the team in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia.