Taking inspiration from proving doubters wrong

When you listen to the Foo Fighters, Jay Z, Linkin Park, Led Zeppelin, whichever angst group you might be into - you feel the buzz that ripples down your neck.

The lyrics speaking of the chance to live a life with more risk and promise than your own that gets the adrenalin going.

You can see into a different life, an alternate universe and live this fleeting feeling for real.

Well as far fetched as it may seem - this is rowing to me. Every training session is conveyed in the death notes screamed out in those songs as we drift through the training program.

I don’t relate to the songs directly but use my own experiences to drive me on.

I didn’t have a violent past, more the opposite. My shy, submissive nature and weak demeanor bore an uninspired past and one that I would not wish on any good man.

However, what I lacked then is now pushing me toward a goal few, if any, foretold.

This past, this desire to prove all the doubters wrong, is fueling my passion.

The way I see it, I am currently the failure they wanted of me, last in Athens, fourth last year - this isn’t good enough.

The chance to have the last word though is coming, judgment day if you will.

My fuel in this sport builds when I see contempt around me, when I see it being done to others.

But I am just one man; I can only do so much.

I can only prove that there’s so much more to life than the pigeonholes that people put you in.

Perhaps I am one of the lucky ones.

Sport is an arena where, once in it, it is hard to suppress those who can make it. It is tragic to see people who only discover themselves halfway through life.

To eventually be given the opportunity, through chance or twist of fate, that can break down the barriers life set up through younger years.

But perhaps life isn’t meant to be easy, the fight I have inside me now is owed to my past.

It has been stored up and has finally found a release that can bring good.

Looking back on my past, retrospect is redefining the lessons; life isn’t about taking the easiest route, but how to be challenged. How to learn to stand up and be counted.

And with patience, everyone has a route in life that gets the most from them, with the benefit to all concerned.

My chance to show that I am worth more than the sum of my GCSE’s, more than the pitiful future I could only see myself living, is embodied in the Olympics.

I owe my determination to my parents who always wanted more, and I am proud to be able to say I have a seat in the top-ranked boat for GB.

I also thank them for the fight I can now use off my own back, not inspired by others but from deep within.

I cannot wait for the Olympic final, I cannot wait to test myself, this is who I am and what made me and I have a chance to be the best in the world!