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.

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!

Four years in the making

Four years in the making, blood and sweat, dedication, sacrifice, Beijing holds a number of key words that make the event special for all the people who compete there.

The Olympics gives you a chance only once every four years to achieve your dreams.

For rowing, it is the pinnacle of our sport. Achieving a gold medal here means everything. I would trade 100 world championship gold medals (our annual event) for one gold at the Olympics.

My driving force for this event in particular is what happened four years ago in the Athens Olympics.

Rowing with the eights, various excuses then have now become lessons learned now.

Where factions existed then, a single crew attitude dominates now.

A smaller crew of only four rowers replaces that of eight rowers and a cox.

A dynamic and driven team look at every angle of our rowing, finding that 0.01% of speed that could make the difference.

On a personal level, I am without doubt a very different person from four years ago.

My physiology, psychology and technique - I’m sure I’m unrecognisable.

This journey has reinvented my approach to rowing and will hopefully make the difference between coming ninth out of nine in Athens to achieving our resolute goal of a simple gold medal in Beijing.

This Olympics is more than ‘the’ race of the last four years though.

There are ghosts to lay to rest from that horrific race four years ago when we were declared to be the worst men’s eight in the world.

All the effort that had gone into that race was instantly thrown into our faces; blame only lay on our shoulders.

Back then, I knew that there was more within myself, despite failing with my crewmates, I had to find my feet again and drive on.

Since then I have won all the major GB Trials thrown at me, won a Boat Race and I became double world champion in a four with the best rowers in GB.

My drive has been pushing my own limits and those around me, setting a few new standards and trying hard to keep up with those who set standards around me.

Enjoyment has been a real part of the last few years, but only through improvement I felt I was making.

We took a big step backwards last year, coming fourth at the world championships.

I could feel it coming up to a month before the event, but found that I was powerless to do anything about it.

This led to a considerable depression that I have only just started to appreciate.

It was too close to the tragedy of 2004, all the events unfolding in front of me, like a nightmare that you cannot stop.

From that poor performance last year there has been a voyage of rediscovery, finding myself and my role within the four.

But most importantly, finding and implementing the methods that will keep this four on a winning path, beginning in the winter and through the spring.

Every crew gives blood and sweat, dedication and sacrifice.

But what separates us?

Well…I am here to prove that four years ago was the mistake, this is the real deal.

This, right now, is what I am made of.

All the love and the hate, the frustration, the deep down belief, the ignorance, the selfishness, being the person I hate to accept I am; that can put me on top, that is what only I have.

Andy Hodge - Olympic Blog

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