At just 17, Rebekah Tiler has an impressive CV. But now, the young English weightlifting star has reached the height of her sport, and has made the Team GB squad for this year’s Olympic Games in Rio.

Tiler, from Keighley in Yorkshire has already represented England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, finishing fourth in Glasgow and comfortably took the 69kg title in Samoa for the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games. The teenager has already broken several national records, is the Women’s British record holder for the Clean and Jerk having lifted 124kg and was even nominated for BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Now, she is heading to Rio.

“I am so pleased, I have trained so hard for this and now to have made it on the squad is brilliant.”

However, Tiler recognises that this is all part of her development and Rio 2016 is more about gaining the valuable experience, as opposed to taking the Olympic crown.

“This time round, it’s not about winning, it’s just about experience. I am only 17 so I still have plenty of years to come so I am just going out to enjoy myself.

“It’s quite cool that I am one of the younger members of the Team GB squad but I am looking forward to getting out there and seeing if there are any other people who are a similar age to me and it will be nice to see how they got into their sport.”

Her career received a massive boost at Glasgow 2014 when a 15 year old Rebekah Tiler achieved an impressive fourth place finish at the Commonwealth Games, and looks back on the Games as a key part of her development.

“I think the Commonwealth Games has been really crucial in helping me get to where I am today; it was my first multi-sport event and I got to experience being around and seeing the other sports and it was really nice because it was like a big family.”

It was bittersweet for Tiler and British Weightlifting as fellow English star Zoe Smith missed out on the plane to Rio through injury, opening up the single female British spot to Tiler, who wishes Smith a speedy recovery.

“Zoe has been in touch and told me to just enjoy it and do us proud. I feel sorry for her but she will come back strong.”

From all of us at Team England, best of luck Rebekah.

Please tweet your support to @rebekahtiler