Career change ... Alice Mills at home on the Gold Coast last week.
OLYMPIC gold medallist Alice Mills concedes her new career after the Olympic Games in London next year will require all the discipline and stamina she has developed as an elite swimmer.
Mills has spent the past four years studying part-time to become a nurse. It's a very different path to other athletes who try to carve out a post-sporting career in the media.
''The reaction when I tell people I'm studying nursing is 50:50,'' Mills said from her home on the Gold Coast. ''Half of them say 'Wow what a great direction' and they hope it all goes well.
After a rare loss in her swimming days. Photo: Tim Clayton
''Others, however, just blatantly say 'Why would you pursue that?'''
Mills, 25, who won two relay gold medals at Athens in 2004, said it wasn't a hard question to answer.
''I find it quite easy to say that it's rewarding to help people and to try to help make them better,'' she said. ''There's something quite nice about seeing someone leave the hospital and knowing you've made a difference to them and their family.''
She planned to enter the industry at a time when there is an acute shortage of nurses in Australia and around the world.
After having completed three months' worth of practical experience, Mills described the reality of nursing as very different to how it is portrayed in television soap operas.
''I think a lot of people don't realise how hard the work is,'' she said. ''Nursing is very demanding; you need to study [full time] at university for three years so it's not as though you just walk in off the street and do the job. It's a very professional career.
''It's not like you see on television either, it's so exaggerated. It's not as super exciting as television makes it seem, but it's not as sad either. It's more rewarding than anything else.
''Growing up I was the kid who wanted to help everybody else. I started my study four years ago but it's taken me a lot longer to complete the course because of my swimming commitments.''
