Friday 24 March 2017 11:59, UK
Mention Jody Cundy to sports fans and many will say 'that’s the cycling bloke who had that big strop and swore loads at the London Paralympics'.
The GB cyclist, set for a sixth Paralympics at Rio, has had four years to reflect on those infamous five minutes inside the Velodrome when he vented his anger at the officials live on TV after being disqualified for slipping at the start gate in the C4/5 1km time trial.
After being one of the 'faces' in the build-up to London 2012 as a Sky Academy Sports Scholar, it wasn't the home Games the 37-year-old ex-Paralympic swimmer had planned.
Cundy, who swam for GB at three Games between 1996-2004, reflects on that memorable outburst, how being a Scholar boosted his confidence and how he wants his pedalling to do the talking this summer.
Hopefully I can be a massive sport star in Rio for doing some decent sport with medals around my neck rather than cursing and swearing!
That's the thing about London - it was great and annoying. I seem to get a lot of notoriety purely based on that incident and there are a lot of people who don't know that before those Games I had won five gold medals over four Paralympics.
I have to re-educate everyone. Hopefully people will be watching because they want to see how the comeback revenge story goes. Hopefully I can produce the goods and that turns into the story and then I can be one of those superstars, particularly if we pull off the sprint double.
Since London, I've put my career back together again. The 2012 Games didn't go to plan, especially in my No 1 event - 1km time trial. I learned from it and had a year of training without any competitions to get myself motivated again.
We had the Worlds in Mexico in 2014 and that ended up being a massive motivator. The track was at 2,000m altitude and ridiculously fast.
It was the first championships after London. I went there with confidence and I smashed the world record and became world champion again. I even beat the guys that I lost to in London. It was great getting that feeling of winning again.
Since then I was obviously working really hard to get to Rio. We had the World Championships in March in Italy where I won two golds in the kilo and most importantly in GB's new sprint team.
We won gold in a world record [alongside Jon-Allan Butterworth and teenager Louis Rolfe]. That totally renewed my motivation for Brazil and I have really got stuck into training.
That was a tricky event though because I didn't have a clue how well it would go. I had golfer's elbow in the previous six months - picked up NOT from playing golf, strangely. It was tendonitis from working in the gym so that stopped me from doing loads of training.
I had to rework my programme, but to perform as well as I did - in the kilo and sprint - is a great sign for me.
Being a Scholar in the build-up to London gave me a massive boost. It was my fifth Games and there were many things I had already been exposed to, like dealing with live TV and the press.
Those things came naturally but the Scholarship scheme gave my great confidence for the big stage.
Knowing all those people were watching and having the support from a company like Sky was amazing. I saw myself on one of those huge billboards and it was on of those iconic moments for me.
I also had lessons on social media and dealing with using Twitter really boosted me. I knew the other athletes on the Scholarship scheme but knowing you were on the same path as them was a lift and it was just really interesting to see what the other guys were doing. You ended up supporting them as well them as well and having that network of athletes was brilliant.
Any new Scholar should tap into the variety of things Sky can offer. It has a huge network and a huge reputation for having people with experience dealing with big pressures and expectations.
Don't be afraid to tap into that experience. Being on Sky adverts and being on Sky Sports News HQ is a great way of getting your face out there and can turn you into the sports star you think is stuck inside you!
Looking back though, I learned a lot from London. The day after my disqualification and 'that incident', I won bronze in the 4km pursuit in a GB record - I was even in a fight for gold.
It could have been very different. That race helped me erase some of the demons and get me back racing again. I tried to work out all the things that had gone wrong but it was just a freak day and there wasn't a lot we could learn from it.
If it happens again - like the wheel spins - even if it is a mechanical issue, I just have to keep going unless the gun goes to call us back. I was aggrieved and annoyed but told myself that in four years I would put it right.
The Worlds in Mexico gave me that boost and I went back to the drawing board. Now I'm pushing towards Rio.
WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS
1-10 JULY: Quillan Isidore, Euro Championships, Verona, Italy
