Well it is over a month since the Olympic Medal race took place for the Radial class. A day which I will surely remember for the rest of my life. I have just returned from a well deserved holiday, perhaps the first of many over the next few months in what is always a quieter period after the games.

 

I am more proud than I can put into words of Lijia Xu and her achievement. The time has just flown by. When I look back at my last blog entry I see it was my last break whilst I was driving down to Hyeres to meet "Lily" for the Semaine Olympique Francaise de Voile (or SOF regatta!) It seems that was the last time I had a proper break haha.

Lily actually won SOF regatta making it three out of three in the World Cup series. It was actually a great shame that she was unable to attend five World Cup events otherwise I feel confident that she would have won the series but actually there was only one result which counted this year and the one which everybody will remember.

There is never enough time when preparing for the Olympics. It really is a case of making the best of every opportunity which comes along. I feel that a huge number of lessons have been learned and it is my greatest hope that these can be taken onwards, towards the future.

One thing which stuck me is life is all about the journey, not the final destination which makes up such a small part (although there is surely no better sporting destination than an Olympic Gold medal). I knew that whatever the result in Weymouth I would be able to sleep well, knowing that I had done my best and no one could have asked me to do any more.

We worked just so hard to be consistent, to deal with the pressure and to communicate. When I heard Lily laugh the morning of the medal race I just knew we were going to have a good day.

The previous two regattas before the Olympics were the World Championships and Sail for Gold regatta, both of which Lily was winning going into the last day but actually I think this was a blessing. We learn more from our mistakes than our successes and using disappointments to make us even more determined is the mark of a true champion.

For now is a period of reflection. To contemplate the future. To get out the map and work out which direction I want to go on the next journey...