The 18-year-old is due to fly home following Sunday's closing ceremony in Beijing after narrowly missing out on a medal at the games.

Lowe was part of the 4x100 metres medley relay team which agonisingly finished fourth by just over a second and the slightest of margins was also enough to prevent the teenager qualifying for the final of the 200m butterfly.

On the upside, Lowe did finish a respectable sixth in the final of the 100m butterfly after equalling her British record in the qualifying rounds.

Dad Mike, who is just getting over the jet lag from watching his daughter in China, said: "At the end of the day there were a couple of highs and a couple of lows.

"Ultimately what she said was it was absolutely amazing and does not want to come home because the whole experience was so emotional.

"It was a big learning curve for her, but she put in the work and could have not put in any more preparation."

Mike admitted Jemma had been inconsolable after failing to qualify for the 200m final in particular.

She had been one of the pre-race favourites to challenge for a medal, but she fell foul of the qualification procedure in the swimming events.

Lowe was third in her semi-final, but the eight fastest swimmers from the two races qualified for the final and there were six swimmers who went faster than the Borough of Stockton athlete in the second semi.

It was particularly hard to take for Lowe as she had been under world record pace for the first 100m before fading in the final 50m and finishing in a time of two minutes 7.87 seconds.

Mike said there were no regrets about Jemma's decision to start like a rocket though, as she realised she needed a quick time to make it through to the final.

"The heats of the 200m were okay and looking at the times, a lot of them were doing two minutes six seconds and she knew she would have to get close to that to make the final," he said.

"In true Jemma style she went below world record pace for the first 100m, as she did in the Olympic trials.

"We thought her time was not particularly brilliant, but it would have needed six swimmers in the second semi to beat her time which is what they did of course.

"We managed to see her afterwards and she was in tears.

"She always said that if she got to the finals she would be happy but unfortunately that didn't happen."