It has been a busy few weeks. I took the top prize at the BBC Yorkshire Sports Personality of the Year dinner held this year in Bradford. It was a great evening at it was a real privilege to sit on the same table as James Toesland last years winner and, Kevin Blakwell Sheffield United manager. The night was made even more special as my parents were also there to see me receive the prize.

I left Bradford and headed straight to Swansea for a week of mountain biking with a few friends. It wasn’t the warmest week but we had some fantastic riding around south wales, it did get a little icy in some valleys and it was pretty exciting riding in the dark with lights. It was all going really well until Saskia came off and after a trip to the hospital the diagnosis was a pretty serious broken collar bone. After another day of slightly more reserved riding it was time for an afternoon at the football to rest the legs.


After watching the mighty Sheffield United grab a point at Swansea it was off to Liverpool for the national BBC Sports Personality of the Year. It was another fantastic evening and a bit of a reunion with other medalists from Team GB. After the show there was a great party which was pretty surreal being surrounded by lots of TV stars and legendary athletes. It was pretty funny to be signing autographs and having your picture taken as you enter and leave the hotel.
I am back home in Weymouth now, and its back into fitness training in preparation for a cross country skiing trip to Austria post christmas where I will be joined by several other members of the Olympic team.

Have a good Christmas

Well it’s been quite a busy and exciting few weeks for me.

Today I was part of the opening committee for the new Olympic Sailing Centre at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. The new site has grown somewhat over the last few months and is now completed, the first of the London 2012 sites and on budget!

The site today looked quite spectacular and with the sun shining it was a bit of an inspiration as I enter back into training with London 2012 firmly in my sights.

Over the last few weeks I have been involved with a lot of cool stuff. I have been at the Cycle show with Volvo looking at some pretty cool new bikes and deciding which would be best to kick start my fitness training. One of my toughest challenges has been to take on the Ryder Cup course for 2010. I played at the Volvo amateurs and lost a colossal amount of golf balls! I did however pull it out of the bag when the cameras were on birding the 450 yard first hole, it soon went downhill once we had escaped the cameras.

After returning from a friend’s wedding in Tobago I was thrown straight in at the deep end with my acting skills. I had three days of intense filming were I had to learn a script and perform in front of the cameras. It’s not quite as easy as it looks!!

Having cracked performing in front of cameras ishhhhh a new challenge came about as I was asked to be a stand in for Gladiators. What was I thinking? I had 3 days of training with James DeGale and Kieran Bracken, what a laugh. I even managed to keep laughing while James was beating me with the big sticks used on Duel. I managed to knock him off his feet a few times but never off the podium, each time it ended in me jumping off after taking way too many heavy blows.

Luckily for me, neither James or Kieran got injured so I didn’t get the chance to properly take any Gladiators down but I enjoyed watching the boys try.

Its back into training now as I start to focus on the next 4 years ahead and how we can improve for the next games. It has been great to take some time out but I need to start getting back into shape physically for the year ahead.

Roll on 2012