'I won Commonwealth bronze - then went back to work at McDonald's'

“Someone said to me: ‘It’s crazy that you can win a Commonwealth medal and then come back to work.'”

So 22-year-old Summer Shaw decided to make a TikTok video about her swift change of scenery while on a work break at a McDonald’s restaurant.

The five-second clip that Shaw posted “for funsies” went viral, and has been watched over one million times. Then came the comments…

“People were asking: ‘How is this possible?’

“They were like: ‘This shouldn’t be allowed.'”

‘They’ve been good with me – it’s hard to find jobs with flexible hours’

Shaw won Scotland’s first judo medal at the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, a bronze in the 48kg event.

“It’s so cool when it’s something you’ve dreamed of doing since you were eight years old – and suddenly you’re there,” Shaw told BBC Sport.

“To get there was crazy, and to come away with a medal was even better.”

Shaw won that medal on the last Friday of the Games. The next week, she was back at the family home in Surrey – and back to work.

“I picked up that part-time job [at McDonald’s] when I was studying for my A-levels,” said Shaw, who qualifies to represent Scotland through her father’s side of the family.

She has recently been based largely in Birmingham while studying for a biology degree. That means she has been close to the British Judo Olympic and Paralympic National Training Centre in Walsall.

“They’ve been really flexible with me, letting me work when I can. They’ve been really good with me,” she said.

“It’s mostly seasonal because my job’s back at home, but when I am back it is like two, three shifts a week.

“It’s hard to find jobs like it though that are flexible with your hours. I’ve heard from other people in their part-time jobs saying their boss won’t give them the weekend off.”

Part-time jobs ‘very common’ for elite athletes

Shaw is a world-class competitor in a sport where the rewards may not make her wealthy.

“Obviously there’s football, Formula One… but I can’t think of many more sports where it is a case of ‘you’ve hit the top level and now you’re financially settled’,” she said.

Shaw is given what is called an ‘Athlete Performance Award’ (APA), a financial grant from UK Sport and the National Lottery that contributes towards her living and training costs.

There are different grades of support that athletes receive, depending on their results and prospect of medal-winning performances.

Shaw told BBC Sport that it was “very common” for athletes in sports like judo to have another source of income.

“The money I get [APA] covers my living expenses, which is a blessing and not to be taken for granted,” she said.

“But, for example, the next competition I’ve paid for myself because it wasn’t funded by British Judo.

“Going to Peru [for the Grand Prix] has cost me quite a bit of money and then I’m not really getting that back from anywhere else.

“I’m also a normal person! Like, I want to save for a house.”

Athletes can also earn money through sponsorships, something Shaw says would be a “game-changer” for an athlete at the present stage of her career.

“It just means you can take every single opportunity… put it towards competitions that I don’t get funded.”

Shaw also decided to set up a GoFundMe page at the start of the year, which she sees as a way of helping to fund her dream of going to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

‘Superman also had a side hustle’

Scroll through the TikTok comments on her video about returning to work, and you get a taste of the public reaction: “This is crazy”, “insane to me”.

Another comment reads simply: “Superman also had a side hustle.”

Which begs the question… would Shaw continue with this work if she did have a sponsor?

“I’ve met so many of my close friends there, and my boyfriend! So I owe a lot of good things in my life to that McDonald’s,” she said.

“But obviously it means I could be more selective, rather than thinking ‘I really should work because I’ve got a competition coming up and I don’t want it to take a hit to my bank account’.”