People have different opinions about freestyle. Some, who don’t understand the sport, might think “what’s the point of it?” They might think, if you are not scoring goals, or becoming really famous and earning lots of money, then why are you doing it? The main thing for me is to reach the other side of the audience and that they can see this girl on stage, performing in the battles and doing lots of cool tricks.

There are a couple of freestylers who have inspired me. One is Jack Downer and he does a lot of street football, which is a different style of freestyle. He has given me a lot of advice. Then there’s Scott Penders who has also been supportive. They are both from London, we’re very good friends.

It would be incredible if freestyling became a part of the Olympics. I know there’s a lot of work to get it there, especially in the judging criteria. Every freestyle is so different from one another, so how can you judge at an Olympic level? I believe it will happen one day, but maybe I will be too old by then. If that’s the case, I’ll still be rooting for the others.

Lia Lewis was speaking to Vicki Hodges