Kelly Holme's life has changed since winning two gold medals at the Athens Olympics. As her unforgettable triumphs are retold in her new book, she tells Hannah Stephenson what it means to have achieved her lifelong dream and what the future holds.

Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes hasn't stopped smiling since she returned home with two gold medals from Athens. The former Army physical training instructor has become an unwitting celebrity, appearing on chat shows, at award ceremonies and dining with royalty. She turned down Tom Cruise's invitation to a film premiere in London because, she says, she didn't have a thing to wear and certainly wasn't going to turn up in a tracksuit.

She has also met the Queen, had dinner with the Princess Royal, visited Tony Blair in Downing Street and hobnobbed with the likes of pop icon Robbie Williams. She's clearly loving every minute of it But Kelly takes it all in her stride and success doesn't seem to have gone to her head.

''It's a different world from what I'm used to,'' she beams. ''I just kind of grin and smile and think, 'Oh my God, look at me now, I'm sitting on the set of EastEnders, or sitting next to Tom Cruise or shaking David Beckham's hand at an England-Wales match'.''

Indeed, when she appeared on Parkinson, she couldn't even bring herself to look at Cruise, so overawed was she by the experience.

''He came up before the show and said he thought how great my performance was and gave me a hug, and I just thought, 'Oh my God, megastar!'. How often do you get to sit next to Tom Cruise? It was really surreal.''

Kelly has been bowled over by the continuing support and congratulations she's had from the public since winning both the 800m and 1500m in Athens. She carries her two gold medals with her everywhere she goes.

''Everyone wants to see them,'' she enthuses. ''They must have been touched by a million people.

''I thought after the Olympics things would be back to normal in a couple of weeks, but it hasn't stopped for three months.''

The 34-year-old athlete, who was plagued with injuries throughout her career before reaching her peak form in this year's Olympics, has since had a diary full of glitzy social events. But there's a down-to-earth trait in her personality that keeps her grounded, with not a hint of over-inflated ego or bad attitude.

Brought up in Kent by her mother, Pam Thomson and stepfather Michael Norris (her Jamaican-born father, Derrick Holmes, left home shortly after she was born), from an early age Kelly dreamed of winning the Olympics.

She says now: ''I'm really proud of myself, of being able to stick in the sport and getting through all the problems I've had and finally come out on top. What I've achieved doesn't make me any better than anyone else as a person. It's just that my dream's become a reality. It's made me more relaxed about myself because I've always been under pressure to achieve my goals.''

At least she has a few more designer clothes than she did several months ago when she met Tom Cruise, as fashion designers including Roland Mouret, Jasper Conran and Scott Henshall are falling over backwards to persuade her to wear their clothes to functions.

''I never used to go to posh functions because I was so focused on the athletics,'' she says. ''Now, everywhere I go I get photographed, so I have to have something different on. That's like a really weird new world. My wardrobe has totally changed.''

Certain memories of Athens, aside from the obvious elation at winning two gold medals, stick in her mind.

''I remember Seb Coe on his knees undoing my spikes before the formal presentation of the 800m medals - my hero on his knees!''

Some 80,000 people turned out to her open-bus welcome home parade in Kent, an event which will always stick in her mind. ''That was the most overwhelming response I've had.''

Her time in Athens is recorded in a new book, My Olympic Ten Days, published today, in which she relives her emotions and routines on and off the track during the competition.

We only see the smiling Kelly, but the book charts the pain she has had to endure to keep herself in peak condition, including agonising ice baths which she had to sit in for 10-15 minutes after a race to help the system recover, acupuncture to relieve tension and harsh massages.

She took sleeping tablets to help her rest and calm her nerves on the eve of her races and followed strict rituals, from laying out her kit on her bed in a particular order each night, to using the same Portaloo just before races.

Sally Gunnell, now a commentator, would hand her peanuts and water after some of the races to keep her energy levels up.

She believes that her grit and determination to achieve her dream is in-built, not inherited from her family.

''I knew I could never give up. There was always something inside me that said I can do it. I was right.

''It happened because I must have some will power that I am not quite sure about, a determination that nothing will break me. Often, during all those times of pain and injuries, I thought about quitting. I said to myself back in 1999 that if I had one more major problem, that would be it.

''I had that problem but I carried on. I always knew that if I could just go for a season free from trouble, maybe, just maybe, I could do it.''

Away from athletics, she says she hasn't even thought about the possibility of settling down one day and having children.

For the moment she is enjoying her new-found fame and has just returned from South Africa where she was running a training camp for female middle distance runners.

She'll start racing again in January and is not yet sure whether she'll compete in the European Indoor Championships in Madrid in the spring.

Kelly has said that now she has achieved her Olympic dream, she won't have the same hunger for future competitions, although she has no plans to quit running. Her autobiography is due out next year and, no doubt, she'll be in demand on the celebrity circuit.

''I want to race because I want to enjoy it. I don't want to put pressure on myself any more,'' she explains.

''I don't have to have that completely focused determination for the Olympics any more because I've done it. My whole life has been about me trying to achieve my dream to be an Olympic champion. I've got what I want so my goals are different.

''I have to re-evaluate where I want to go,'' she says of her future career. ''I'd like to get into television and not necessarily just sports.''

But for now, that beaming smile shows no sign of fading as Kelly continues to wallow in the glory of her runaway Olympic success.

* Kelly Holmes - My Olympic Ten Days, by Kelly Holmes with Richard Lewis (Virgin, £9.99).