She had been promised the shoes by her hometown mayor if she returned victorious from Beijing.

And last night – as 15,000 proud residents of Mansfield, Notts, waited to cheer her on an open-topped bus tour – mayor Tony Eggington kept his promise.

The £460 shoes were appropriately made of watersnake skin.

She joked: “The shoes weren’t the first thing I thought about on winning. I was just so overwhelmed.”

She had earlier arrived in the UK in a gold-nosed jumbo jet and been picked up in a golden Rolls-Royce.

The athlete is presented with her golden Jimmy Choo shoes

Rebecca, 19, is the first British swimmer to win two Olympic gold medals since 1908. She won the 400m freestyle and then the 800m  in a world-record time.