Golden opportunities are dilemma for Grainger as Olympics beckon

KATHERINE Grainger went through months of soul-searching after the last Olympic Games before deciding to continue her career in rowing for another four years.

Now, with the London Games looming, she faces another, arguably tougher decision: to focus on her strongest event as she bids for that elusive gold medal, or to take advantage of the supreme form in which she finds herself and aim for a double triumph.

After coming second in the last three Games, the Scot, 36 next month, opted to carry on for another Olympic cycle because she was motivated above all else by her desire to go one better and win gold in London. But now, after winning a sixth World Championship title in Slovenia last month, she knows she has the chance to go two better next year, and be part of the winning crew in both the double and quadruple sculls.

A final decision need not be taken for some time yet. First, there are long months of winter training to undergo. Then come the national trials, and only after them will the Great Britain coaches finalise their plans for the Olympic team.

But that long wait only prolongs the agony for Grainger as she contemplates a choice which could define her career. Does she stake everything on that one last chance of glory, and possibly blame herself for excessive timidity if, as the Games end, she feels she could have won two events? Or would doubling up simply be an unnecessary risk?

“The option of winning two Olympic titles would be fantastic, but the risk of losing that double sculls title that Anna Watkins and I have been aiming for would be a lot to consider,” Grainger said yesterday. “Already some people are saying I would be insane to think about doing both, because we are looking very good for the double sculls after winning the World Championship.

“Having been a silver medallist three times at the Olympics, I think that I more than anyone know how much winning Olympic gold would mean. But any athlete at the top of their game wants to make the most of it. The timetable is a challenging one, but it is do-able. The two finals have a day in between, when we would probably have a semi-final to compete in.”

Doubling up is common enough for British athletes, with Kelly Holmes having won two golds at the 2004 Games and Mo Farah having come within an ace of winning two world long-distance titles this summer. In rowing, however, the practice is rarer, which must make Grainger’s decision all the tougher.

As befits someone with two law degrees who is currently writing a PhD on homicide, she will consider every available scrap of evidence, in consultation with her coaches, before arriving at a verdict. “We would need to be in top form, and we would need to stop thinking of it as a risk,” she added. “How the trials go will play a large part in our thinking.”

Indeed, the trials represent the most important step in the build-up to the Olympics for all Britain’s rowers, as the composition of the team will not be decided until after them. By winning that world title, Grainger and Watkins only qualified the GB boat for a place at the Games: their individual selection is at the mercy of the coaches. “I think that system stops us being complacent,” she said. “It means nobody has ownership of the boat, even if we do feel very protective about it having won the world championship in it. And it also means we have to train really hard over the winter before we go up against each other in individual competition in the trials.”

Grainger and her colleagues will be away from the public eye for six or seven months now, until the first World Cup regatta next spring gives us – and their rivals – a glimpse of the form they are in as the countdown to the Olympics begins in earnest. Outsiders might regard rowing’s long close season as something akin to hibernation, but to Grainger it is the most stressful part of the calendar – and with the Olympics now only ten months away, this winter threatens to be the most stressful yet. “I’d love to go into hibernation if it involved sleeping for three months. That would be bliss.

“But instead it feels like going into a long, dark tunnel. You get your head down and get on with your training. It’s the hardest, most gruelling, most stressful time.”

• Katherine Grainger was speaking at the launch of the Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week. Next year’s week takes place from 11 to 15 June, and schools can register now at www.schoolsportweekscotland.org Schools which register before 6 November will have a chance to compete for places on the Olympic Flame relay.