Having won a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in London, Stokesley rower Kat Copeland failed to make the final of the lightweight double sculls in Rio. Writing for The Northern Echo, she reflects on her Olympic experience.

I’m settled back in to life now. The time’s gone pretty fast, it only seems like we’ve been back a couple of days.

I’m from the North-East and we train near Reading, so I’ve been trying to get back up home and spend a bit of time with my family

A couple of my friends have got married too, so it’s nice to be able to do stuff like that and to go and see people – I’ve had to sacrifice those things in the build up to Rio.

I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on Rio now, but I think it will take quite a bit of time to work out. When I came back to London that’s not what I thought would’ve happened. We were pretty devastated and I feel like the whole year for us has not been great.

We had a lot of things go wrong and I think we never quite got back on track. But I spoke to our head coach before we left Rio, when we were in the Village in the second week, and we’ve got a month off now.

It’s quite hard at the time because it’s such a big moment and the emotions are all over the place, so it’s good to have a bit of distance, to step back and reflect.

We’re going to do that and then go back for a proper detailed debrief of that week racing, but also of the whole year, and the whole Olympic cycle, looking at what we can do better so that it doesn’t happen again.

The whole Olympic experience was so mixed. The racing was some of the hardest days I’ve ever had to experience.  We were so disappointed. But I think it’s actually testament to how amazing a place it is, because I still enjoyed being in Rio.

It’s an absolutely incredible city and you realise just how amazing and special it is to just be part of the Olympic Games. Being part of something bigger than the rowing team, with all the different sports, and everything the Olympics bring.

It’s the biggest stage, you’ve got the Village, it just feels special – it’s an incredible thing to be a part of.

The two experiences of London and Rio were so different – not just because of our results. London was really incredible because of the crowds and the atmosphere – if someone asked me the one thing to remember London for, then that would be it, the crowds got behind everyone, not just Team GB. It was also nice to be able to share London with everyone I knew as everyone was able to be there.

But then in Rio, when we went to Nissan House in the second week, it looked out over Copacabana and I realised I may never have gone there if it weren’t for the Olympic Games, that an away Olympics gave me the opportunity to go somewhere incredible.

* SG Petch Nissan Durham are proud to support Kat Copeland on her road to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. To find out more about Nissan’s partnership with Team GB, visit nissan.co.uk/uniteandexcite