大象传媒

Three weeks to go until the Olympics start - and you won't believe it, but I've got a horrendous cold! It's actually got worse over the last few days - I can't even breathe properly, but I'm on antibiotics so hopefully that'll cure me.

It's been a while since I last blogged, so let me just update you on what's been happening. At the end of April I went on holiday to Goa with my boyfriend Ed - 10 days of sun, really hot, lovely beach, really chilled out, and once I got back, we got straight into our 12-week programme of Olympic training.

It's been a long wait, but I've seen the letter . We did our first team selection back in April and the second one in the beginning of May, then the qualification race at the end of May, which feels like ages ago. It's been anxious, but it's been worth it.

We didn't qualify outright so that's why we had to wait. We were told they were 99% sure but, until you get official confirmation and your letter from the BOA congratulating you, it's not a done deal.

That's quite hard but everyone told us to be positive and train on the assumption we'd be on the team. We were given forms to sign and we had our jabs done a couple of weeks ago, so we've been doing all the preparation anyway, but it's great to have that finally nailed.

"Sport is the only human institution based on idealism - it's survived 33 centuries because of that. If it was simply competition it wouldn't have lasted 33 weeks. Anything which is not based on ethics cannot be called sport. If it's a corrupt environment, we can't invite our children into it.

"We must be jealous of that ideal if we're going to bring them into it and every time we see anyone breaking that ethic we've got to jump on them. Otherwise we lose the precious jewel that we hand to the next generation."

Wise words, noble sentiments, and the fact they were published 16 years ago reflects just how poorly they were heeded at the time.

Now, however, with finally over, it is perhaps time to reflect on what Olympic sport really means, or more accurately, what it should mean.