Hi, I'm Greg Searle and on the run up to the 2012 Olympics in London I'm going to be blogging and generally keeping the Concept2 community up to date with what I'm up to and how my training is going. And hopefully letting you in on what it's like to be part of a medal winning Olympic team!

To kick start things I should probably tell you a little about myself and how I've got to this stage after being out of the sport for so long.

So to the history:
In 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics, I along with my brother Jonny and cox Garry Herbert, won the gold medal in the coxed pairs. To win a gold medal at the age of 20 and to stand and see the flag raise as the national anthem was played was an incredible experience. I went on to win the World Championships in 1993 with Jonny and a bronze at the Atlanta Olympics in the coxless four.

After retiring from international rowing, and after a brief spell racing sailing boats in the GB Americas Cup team I started working for a great company and thought my international sporting days were behind me. But in 2009 I went to the World Championships as a commentator for the BBC. Being so close to the athletes and the sport again and also seeing that competitors who I had raced against were still competing started to make me think and soon after I got back I put some goals in place with the ultimate goal being that I make it into the team for the 2012 Olympics, a mere 20 years after my first Olympic win.

In this blog I'm going to tell you how I've got there and what I'm up to with training and racing between now and the games. I've already done some videos with Andy from Concept2 (who is starting a blog of his own) but I'd love to hear any questions you may have.

To keep up to date with what I'm doing drop your details in the box here and I'll make sure you're notified when I make an update.

Greg