And with this I guess the Olympics won't be featuring highly in my memories. They haven't in the past, despite all that happened. Sure, Atlanta was great and coming fourth was a near-miss. But I was quite young and I didn't feel the pressure. We didn't do what we were meant to in the final but apart from that it was a very enjoyable games without drama.

Athens was different. We won the heat and had a good race and then for the semifinal the official scales were broken. When you weigh in the scales have to lock and the number has to flash up and that is the weigh in. But that wasn't happening. There was an inexperienced umpire who was refusing to accept that it wasn't our fault. It was a waste of 20 minutes which is significant prior a the semifinal. You need every minute of the two hours to rehydrate and it just took the edge off our next race which was quite disappointing.

But there are good memories. My second world title in 2002 was the greatest because I didn't feel under any sort of pressure. I did with my first in 2001 but it was definitely the highlight. I felt quite confident I was going to win it and the consequences weren't that drastic if I didn't. I was already a champion so I went out and defended it and rowed like I wanted. And when you have that freedom and you are not held back by pressure and expectation, it goes easy.

But to get that there was huge effort. I have been studying through it all and the training was between 25 and 35 hours a week and that was actual training as opposed to travel and preparation. It was relentless. There were a lot of early mornings up running and rowing. Then there'd be something else in the afternoon and because I was studying, by the end of the week, I'd be absolutely exhausted. But no regrets because you have time to do everything else in your life, but you're career as a sportsman is very limited. A lot more limited than you think as I found out.

And besides it was my choice, to study and row. I could have gone full time but I would have been a silly man.

I have to look out for my future. It would have been a worry because you are never going to make a great living from the sport, regardless of how successful you are, and I'm in Cardiff now and even these guys playing rugby full time would have to work when they finish and they are much more high-profile than I am.

But at the same time the study helped. When you are training full time, it is all you focus on and you lose a little bit of perspective. Especially when I was in the single, it's obsessive and you are on your own and it's lonely. You are alone with your own thoughts and if I wasn't studying I would have got lost, especially when the rowing is going badly. At that point the only way to get turn around your sporting performance is to think about other things and change focus.

But even combining the two has been financially good.

Problem was, the infrastructure wasn't there for successful rowing. We have a guy now, Harald Jahrling and he lives full time here and he's a full time set up and he's coaching the boys every day.

We never really had that. I had a great coach, Thor Nielsen from Norway, but he lived there and I only saw him when I had my holidays over Christmas and Easter.

You don't need a coach every day but what I had wasn't enough. You need another pair of eyes all the time and they weren't there.

In hindsight maybe that bothers me, although that is a pointless exercise. We had people on and off coming in but it was never the right man. They were in and out so I would have chosen Thor anyway. So I can't complain, not with the time I've had.

You'd think I would have a lot of free time now, but my medical exams are coming up and I hope to be an intern in St James's next year, so from one busy life to another.