Rebecca Adlington wants a Briton to take over as head coach

Rebecca Adlington wants a British head coach to spearhead the sport to a post-London 2012 revival.

Dennis Pursley quit after GB fell short of its target of six Olympic medals in the pool, collecting just three.

"It would be nice to have someone British who knows the coaches," said double gold medallist Adlington.

"It takes time to get to know everyone and how they work. If you get someone British, they know how to start their job straight away."

British Swimming is currently undertaking a review of the sport following GB's disappointing Olympic campaign.

The findings of the panel, which includes Bob Bowman, the coach of Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps, are due later this month and an announcement about Pursley's successor is expected soon after.

Adlington, Britain's most-successful Olympic swimmer, has admitted her future in the sport depends on Bill Furniss - linked as a possible replacement for Pursley - remaining as her coach.

"If I was going to carry on, I would only want to be coached by Bill," said Adlington.

"We need to sit down and see whether he thinks I have more in me and what he wants to do as a coach."

Adlington, who won two golds at the 2008 Olympics and then a pair of bronze medals in London, is unlikely to compete at the 2016 Games as she feels she will be too old for her favoured 800m event.

"Rio is probably a little bit out of reach," she said. "I will be 27 and I do think that for a female distance swimmer it is difficult.

"If I was a sprinter, I would never even question it and would be back in the water already, but it's just whether I can move down to the 200m and 400m. Bill is the only one who can really answer that for me. To be honest, after all of these years, he knows me better than I know myself."

As an ambassador for the 2014 Commonwealth Games though, Adlington admits she tempted by the thought of competing in Scotland.

"I think every athlete is excited that we now have Glasgow 2014 and another home crowd with great facilities," she said.

Having won two gold medals at the 2010 Games in Delhi, she said: "I love the Commonwealths. It's definitely one of my favourite meets to take part in because of the atmosphere.

"Every athlete wants to be there and I would love to be there myself, but we'll have to see."

Adlington is about to undertake one of the biggest challenges of her career by cycling 280 miles across Zambia. The Bike for Africa project is hoping to raise £50,000 for Sport in Action.

She is due to return in the middle of October and will spend the following few weeks consulting with Furniss and national performance director Michael Scott before deciding whether to carry on competing.

"It's not something I will rush into as it's such a big decision and I'll have to sacrifice a lot to be at the top," she said. "It'll be something that I'm happy with and both Bill and I are comfortable with and confident about."