By Alex, Siobhan and Becca from Homewood School, Kent
Olympic School Reporters, Beijing |
  Gold medal winning rower Tim Foster |
Whilst chanting for Britain at Shunyi Rowing Park on Monday 11th August we were astonished to spot gold medal rower Tim Foster cycling past in the support kit for the Switzerland team and even more bowled over when he agreed to an interview with Homewood for School Report. We started by asking how the training regime for the Swiss differed from the one in Britain? "In Switzerland we don't have professional athletes so it means our rowers and runners don't have as much time as the British do so it's tough. It's different, different language and different mentality but lots of things are the same." And how long is the training season in Switzerland? "We've trained pretty much forty nine weeks of this year," replied Tim "so we have three weeks off in the year and go into solid winter training and the build up to this event." Do you have anywhere special at home where you keep your medal? "That's a good question!" Tim exclaimed "I think it's in my sock drawer at home! It should be in pride of place but I think it's in a sock so when I get home, I'll think of somewhere better to put it!" We asked about the success of the Swiss team to which Tim replied, "the Swiss have had a history of winning gold medals. In 1996 they won a gold medal in the men's single and in the lightweight men's double but they haven't had success now in the last eight or nine years so part of my role is to tell them how good it is and good it feels to win and hopefully they'll train that little bit harder and get the victories themselves." We asked how the feeling of personal success as an athlete compared to that of the feeling of the success of his team as a coach.  |  it would be a dream to coach Britain |
"I think I'll be a lot less tired as a coach?" Tim joked, "but the feeling of elation would be pretty similar. My ambition now is to coach someone to get a gold medal and if they do cross the line first the feeling would be pretty similar as doing it myself except for the pain and the physical effort. It's still my dream and it's why I stayed involved in sport and I want to be able to coach gold medals having been on the other side and realising how good it feels." And do you ultimately want to coach Great Britain? "Definitely, I'm still a passionate Brit. It feels a bit different wearing Swiss kit and actually racing against the British because I'm still British at heart but I hope they do well and I wish the Swiss success but in the end it would be a dream to coach Britain." How did you find the opening ceremony? "The opening ceremony was fantastic. I was very lucky and went into the stadium but I didn't march as I'm actually registered here as Lichtenstein and they're a very small team and I might have stood out a bit! Sitting in the crowd right from the beginning with the drummers and the noise and the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic and for me it shows the Olympics has actually started and it's such a nice feeling to say we're here now and its been a lot of hard work and now this is it." At this point the men's pair went flying by and the interview was temporarily paused whilst Homewood shouted support for team GB. Upon resuming the interview Tim joked, "if I'd have been out there today I would really have embarrassed myself!" We were very grateful to Tim for giving up his time and being so patient. He was very passionate about his sport and was an inspiration to talk to and a thoroughly nice bloke! We wish him all the best for the rest of his Olympics and his coaching career.
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