First of all, Rebecca, it is a pleasure meeting you and I would like to thank you on behalf of the Famouslyfit.com team for the time you are giving up for this interview.

You have had a very successful career as an athlete from a very young age. How old were you when you started to participate in competitive sports?

I was 17 when I started rowing and within a year I was competing at international level. Before that I was just average at most of the sports that I did at school.

We hear so much about child obesity and the lazy lives that children lead today. What do you think made the difference with you? Why were you so keen to be active when you were young?

I grew up without a family car so was always walking/cycling everywhere from a young age. we had active weekends and holidays as a family and I was also encouraged to be active and given opportunities to go to lots of clubs and do lots of physical activity. But why I took it from being an active person to an elite athlete I can’t explain. It’s my calling I guess!

As a top sportswoman, what sort of role model do you think you should be for younger people?

Obviously I hope to be a good role model. On a practical level, most important to me is to encourage younger people to be active, to enjoy taking part and being active and to be aware of the importance of health and fitness. From a performance perspective I hope to inspire young people to be adventurous in trying new things so they can find their talent (everybody has a talent but discovering it is the hard bit) to inspire them to follow their dreams, work hard for them and achieve them.

You have a number of medals. Which medal are you the most proud and why?

My Olympic Gold medal from Beijing. The Olympics are the pinnacle of my sport, to become Olympic Champion is something special and the premier title to win. For me it was the culmination of twelve years hard work!

What has been your most challenging competition and why?

The Beijing Olympic Games was the most challenging. It’s a once in every four year opportunity and therefore a very high pressured event. Every athlete is at their absolute best and to win you really do have to be the fastest in the world! The last few months build up to the Olympics was the hardest I’d ever had to work for something so that makes the medal win even more significant for me.

What sort of training regime do you follow when you are preparing for a competition? How often do you train, and what sort of exercises do you do to improve your performance?

Competition is great because it’s what we train so hard for and competition opportunities don’t come along that often. It’s also the only time that I ever get to feel full of energy and appreciate my fitness as we start to do what we call ‘taper down’ for competition. I’ll decrease to about 8 hours training in the week before a competition. It’s where the focus is about resting and recovering with just speed work for racing being the main component. It’s about going through an adaption phase of recovering from all the previous hard work, coming out of it stronger and faster and then sharpening up to race.

How does this differ in your everyday life when you are not preparing to compete?

When I’m not about to compete I’ll be in full time training mode where I’ll train twice a day six days a week. This could involve a maximum of 30 hours in a tough hard week. It’s about the hard grind, being physically exhausted and tired all the time and having your friends think it’s hilarious that they can beat you walking down the road or up the stairs because you’re so tired. It’s through this type of life that the medals are won by athletes!

You spent a good proportion of your sporting career in rowing, but I understand that you have made a switch to another sport. What sport are you now involved in and how did the change come about?

I spent eight years as international rower and won a few World Championship titles and an Olympic silver medal. I then retired from rowing but quickly found myself involved in track cycling and progressed up the ranks pretty quickly. Within a couple of years I became double World Champion and Olympic Champion.

Rowing may not be the first sort of sport that comes to people´s mind when they are young – especially young women. Why do you think it is a great sport to participate in?

I think rowing is a great sport because it’s got a huge technical element to it as well as the physical element. It provides means for training alone or together as a team and it caters for those wanting casual relaxing paddles up and down the river to those wanting more exhausting lung busting, muscle burning competitive side by side racing! It’s also great for getting outdoors and out on the water. River scenery is fantastic to experience as the seasons change.

Where do you go from now? What are your hopes and dreams for your future in sports?

I’d like to be at the Olympics in London. To compete in front of a home crowd would be a phenomenal experience. I’ve had my Olympic event that I won in Beijing cut from the Olympic programme so I’d be racing in a different cycling event in London. I’d want to be Olympic Champion again of course but my main aims are to try to push the limits of my athletic capabilities and see how fast I can go and how good I can be.

Nothing to do with sport! So many women today are looking to plastic surgery or botox to enhance their appearance or "sex appeal". Would you ever consider this? If so, why? If not, why not?

Hmmm, well I’ve definitely noticed some frown lines that are sticking around. The years of training have contributed to this as I’ve always got a screwed up concentration or trying hard face and I’m always outside squinting into the sun. I wouldn’t consider it now but I guess I’ll have to see how bad I age! But even then I’m sure I’d not be that bothered or that vain.

Do you work in support of a Charity? Which One? How can other people become involved and support you if they want to?

I work with a number of charities all in different ways. What I think is really inspiring is people who take on challenging physical events to support and raise money for charity. To push and challenge yourself, achieve your goals and then have the results of your hard work benefit others, makes it even more rewarding.

You obviously use up a whole load of calories. What would a typical day look like with your nutrition?

A typical day is having a well balanced diet with every meal being nutritionally balanced and making sure that I’m having an intake of calories sufficient to support my training demands. I’ll have three main meals a day but I’ll increase the quantity to increase calorie intake. I’ll also intake extra calories through snacking during the day. My nutrition is very important around training sessions where I’ll use sports nutrition products during and straight after training to meet the demands of that specific session. Be it fluid and supplements for adequate hydration, carbohydrate for energy or protein for repair and recovery.

If you were to give our readers 4 top tips to improve their approach to nutrition, what would they be?

1. Vary your diet to make food experiences more exciting
2. Make sure you make each meal balanced
3. Have everything in moderation (and that includes desserts!)
4. Be focused on good nutrition and strict with yourself for a couple of weeks and see what a difference it can make to how you feel and function. The results will then motivate you to continue that way and by that stage you will have also formed good nutrition habits which are easier to continue.

Do you take Sports Supplements? What role do you think they play in a healthy, balanced diet?

I don’t tend to take supplements on a regular basis as I believe I should have a balanced enough diet to give my body everything it needs. However, when I get to a four week lead up to an important competition I will take vitamin supplements just to make sure I’m topped up, am on best form and to help prevent an injury or illness. I also top up on cod liver oil tablets because they actually help to relieve asthma symptoms which are made worse by the physical intensity of competition.

You have decided to put your backing behind the “Change you Meat Not Your Menu Campaign”. Why is that?

It’s important for me to eat healthily to help me get the most from my training but I like to enjoy my food too. For me, turkey is the perfect protein – turkey breast is not only low in saturated fat but it holds the flavour of spices, herbs and sauces really well so not only is it tasty but it’s easy to incorporate into my diet.

The Change Your Meat Not Your Menu campaign has some great ideas on how to include turkey in a tasty, healthy balanced diet with minimal fuss and effort

If Readers want more information about the campaign, how can they get it?

They can go to the web site (www.changeyourmeatnotyourmenu.co.uk)

In all your years of being a sportswoman, who has given you the most inspiration and why?

Lots of people have inspired me in different ways but there are two people in particular. My mother who inspired me to be a hard worker, that I can do anything I set my mind to and to persevere. Jonathan Edwards was an inspirational athlete to me. I aspired to perform breaking records as spectacularly as he did and to conduct myself as admirably as he did.

Do you have a vice? If so what is it?

I’m intolerant of bad drivers.....grrrr. Middle lane hoggers in particular. Oh and zips - I HATE zips. I am forever unable to zip things up, forever breaking them, splitting them apart, getting them jammed stuck etc.

What has been your most embarrassing moment?

As if I would embarrass myself further and tell people about it!

Quick fire questions

Fave Drink? – Cappuccino (made better with a piece of cake!)
Fave Food? – Anything on Wagamama’s menu (oh, and cake of cause!)
Fave Holiday destination? – Anywhere warm and secluded.
Fave Running Shoe? – Nike Pegasus
Fave Sportswear Company? - Nike
Fave Cosmetic Company? – The Sanctuary Spa – Covent Garden
Fave Dress Designer – Haven’t found one yet but that would be whoever makes dresses that fit actually fitted me!
Fave all time action hero? – Rocky!!! A great training motivator!
Perfect actor/actress? – Tom Hanks - he has such a wide range of acting capabilities.

On behalf of the whole team here at Famouslyfit.com, I would like to thank you for your time and wish you lots of success in your future career

Good luck!

Interview by Lee Latchford Evans, Ex Steps Star turned Celebrity Personal Trainer