World Olympic Dreams brings 2012 athletes closer
It is almost exactly a decade since the . Of course that event is a rainbow of experiences for me - the city, the racing, the medal and the people I did it all with.
But by far the most common thing that people ask me about was the documentary that the four of us (, and if it's bothering you) made in the four years running up to the Games.
People want to know what it was like training with a film crew around all the time - we weren't as we filmed it ourselves as a genuine "video diary".
But people predominantly ask about Steve falling off the rowing machine. It was an explicit piece of television - not by standards that would worry editors, but in its ability to reveal.
Steve must have done thousands upon thousands of interviews over the years, all asking: What drives you? And in the end one piece of television summed it all up. Steve falls off the rowing machine in agony and exhaustion at the end of our rowing test in the spring of the Olympic year. The determination, pride and sheer horror of what he was asking his body to do is there naked for all to see.
In a previous life I won four gold medals at the Olympics between 1992 and 2004 and I now work at the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳. Whilst I was part of the Beijing team for the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ in the summer of 2008, my primary role is as reporter for . I've been told to expect some slings, arrows and some lively debate - if you'd like to direct the first two to my editor's blog and the last right here.
