The Scottish 29-year-old star has been a champion in the making since getting his hands on a canoe paddle at the age of eight.

Titles and medals followed by the bucket-load and in 2004 he grabbed all the headlines with a phenomenal season.

He became World Cup champion, won a silver at the European Championships and just missed out on gold in his first Olympics in the K1 Single Class event.

There was no stopping Walsh, and he maintained his fantastic run with silver at the 2005 World Cup and a bronze at last year's world championships.