Paying tribute to the support of friends and family

Winning a gold medal is an unbridled and overwhelming joy.

I get great satisfaction out of knowing that a gold medal is the reward for everything that went into the race.

All the support from friends and family in Moseley and in Yorkshire, all the money in my bank and in the training base at Caversham from the National Lottery.

I’ve had so much support, even from the club in Clarendon and my school in Wharfedale.

To come home with this medal and show them what they helped me to achieve is very, very special. And I get to wear this medal now whenever I want to.

I started the Beijing Olympics not knowing where to go after the Games and it’s still a case of who know what’s going to happen.

I would love to go to London and win a gold medal in my home country.

But at the minute I’m taking it one day at a time. Hopefully I will still love rowing and take a huge enjoyment out of the sport.

It’s the world championships in Poland in August and I might decide to take some time out before that.

But let's go back to Beijing.

I shut down a couple of months before the Olympics and from then on it was quite easy to stay in my own bubble.

Every day we were improving, from the heats to the semi-final to the final.

And that made me really happy.

I was really confident no-one could beat us and that reflected how we raced the first 1,500m of the final.

The Aussies went out ahead of us but I knew they would pay for that.

They knew the only way they could beat us was to row out fast.

But we had a solid race plan and a solid rhythm. We stuck to our guns and to our rhythm.

It was quite a gamble by them and we knew going into the last 250 they couldn’t stop us because we were executing the last part of our race plan.

If you put 100% effort into 1,750m, then you’re going to slow up over the last 250m.

We put 100% effort into 2,000m and you can only do that if you have confidence in your coaching, your crew and your gameplan.

If we gave 100% and finished silver then we wouldn’t be able to argue because we were beaten by a better crew.

But we didn't, and I will never tire of looking at this beautiful gold medal.

Where now after fulfilling my lifetime ambition

I love rowing for my life, and I loved winning an Olympic gold medal.

I have an enormous sense of relief after that race.

There was a lot to put to bed. With Athens, and then the recent success in Beijing, turning it all into gold meant a huge amount.

And now it feels like my body is drained and my head just wants to lie as low as it can.

Unfortunately, for my girlfriend and parents, that’s not what they wanted when they came out to see me.

It has been a great few days with all the support that has come flooding in, and it makes me so happy to know that I could make so many people proud.

But that chapter is over now, what remains is the next four years. London 2012 is now my target and when I finish enjoying this medal, the mission is on.

As for now, there are several parties, a couple of interviews, and a holiday waiting ... and a very nice medal that I will cherish for life.

Before long I will knuckle down and concentrate on the future.

The next four years isn’t about how I move on, but how we move on. I want to see more rowers on the Olympic stage come London.

With my medal, I am now in a real position to make a difference.

How can we pull our resources together and give our athletes the best chance in this sport?

There are so many people who never had the chance to find the potential within themselves, I want to turn this around and see that as many people are motivated enough to reach out and find something besides a 9 to 5 job.

Ideally this attitude would come from a wider society appealing far beyond rowing, but for now I will start at my club.

We have plans to construct pathways through the club, to give kids the opportunity to exploit any potential they have.

These lead to two paths, high performance or participation.

This way we’re not just flogging our rowers but getting the most from them, they either just enjoy the sport or they want to win.