Post-Olympic glow has taken us from beauty to the beast

Olympics . . . what Olympics!

If there’s a sobering aspect to the post-Olympic glow and the legacy drive, it’s the fact that for a few of us, we’ve decided to do it all over again.

When it comes to sitting on the start line, wherever, previous success doesn’t count for a stitch. With the continuous rise in standards across all sports, ‘just’ doing what you did last year, isn’t enough.

Every year the programme pushes on, with newbies, fresh-faced and bushy-tailed chomping at the bit for every advantage over the oldies.

They didn’t take a three-month break after the games to enjoy the ‘glow’, they were dreaming of what they want, what we did.

I’m sitting here looking out over the breakfast table at one of the most beautiful training camp views I know. But under this beauty is a beast.

This camp, in the Austrian Alps, is our last chance to make a physiological step before the main competition of the year, the World Championships, this year held in Korea, starting on August 25.

The beast is coach Jurgen Grobler’s imagination, and how hard he thinks he can push us.

However, what gives it real bite, a real threat, is the internal games the athletes play. We’re a competitive bunch, everyone angling for a step up, an opportunity to prove ourselves.

This camp is like a stewing pot, just above simmering. Every now and again, it’ll boil over and spit someone out.

The moment anyone lets their guard down, it could be curtains.

For an old athlete like me, having just enjoyed the post-Olympic glow, it’s a rude awakening to what I used to do to my elders.

I took every opportunity I had to get one over, to prove to Jurgen I can step up through the ranks of the team.

That momentum of improving is a drug, it’s a joy, and once you experience it, nothing else will do.

But now the shoe is on the other foot. I'm being shot at, I’m the target.

It’s a very different perspective, and it’s what keeps the sport interesting.

I have to adapt to this new position, find something else out about myself. It will mean that I’ll keep pushing forward, but in a very different way than before.

It certainly doesn’t make things easier, but I still relish this new challenge in this old setting.

The format hasn’t changed much, but it’s a completely different game to when I first came here in 2002.

However, the one thing that stands out in this sport above most others is the team aspect. If you want to succeed, the crew has to succeed! In that way you have to prioritize those around you.

It’s more important that I make sure the seven guys around me are able to perform at their peak above my own. Because if they have the same attitude, I know I’ll be at my peak.

And that is the joy of this game. While it’s cut-throat on one side of the coin, on the other we’re completely reliant on each other.

Up our mountain we’re isolated, away from the toils of normal life.

The balance of rowing becomes almost everything, the hard work, the fight, the support, and reliance.

And before you know it, the Olympics might as well have never happened. It’s back to basics, it’s back to what made us champions in the first place.

I’ve always supported the idea that if you want a gold medal you have to do it for the first time, no matter if it’s the second, third or fourth.

Just like my first trip up here, I had to learn, now it’s my 12th, I'm still learning!