Coming off a busy week in Perth for Kayak Nationals (3-7 April 2013), it was great to spend a week with Surf Club mates paddling in the ocean for Surf Aussies at North Kirra, Qld (18-21 April 2013). The first final of the week was on the first day of racing! – Murray Stewart, Shannon Eckstein and I, finished second in the Ski Relay to Trigg Island (WA). My other results included a gold in the Taplin Relay (which I’m proud to say, was my 6th one for BMD Northcliffe), a silver in the Double Ski (with Murray), a bronze in the Mixed Double (with Hannah Davis), and a bronze in the Single Ski. The next focus for competition, is the Australian National selection event at the end of June in Penrith, NSW.

(Photo – 2013 BMD Northcliffe’s Open Taplin Aussie Title holders – Dev Lahey, Shannon Eckstein, Murray Stewart, Tate Smith, Mark Bint, Cory Hill)

They say winning an Olympic Gold Medal is Life Changing! And it’s very true.

As an athlete, I only thought about one thing… that was winning. Never beyond, to how life would change after achieving a life long dream. Also some things don’t change, I still have to clean the house, pick up the dog poo in the backyard and keep paying the mortgage. But when we got home, it all started with the parades all around Australia, signing 1000s of autographs and taking 1000s of photos. That’s when things started to sink in, for how inspiring our race was for the Australians back home, to hear all their stories gave me goose bumps everytime. I also had the pleasure to speak at a lot of functions, sharing our story and journey of how we became Olympic Champions.

So how things have changed:
We will always be sketched in the history books as Olympic Champions. We achieved a feat no other Australian has, and we conquered my greatest achievement to date. To me, that’s what matters most.

Where to now?
I have heard that to win Olympic Gold medals back to back is the hardest thing possible, harder than winning your first. That challenge alone, will give me enormous motivation to try and achieve something special. And this time, I believe we will have all of Australia behind us. Wanting us to represent our country, to compete on the biggest stage and fight against all odds to win again… and we will give it more than our best!

If you’d like to sign up for my monthly eNewsletters, email me at tate@tsmith.com.au. The first one will be send out tomorrow.

I’ve just changed my settings on my computer, and realised there are hundreds of emails to tate@tsmith.com.au I missed seeing since the Games! Check out this cute little girl from Perth. Thanks to Rebecca for your wishes. I’m sorry I didn’t see it your email until now.

The 2013 season has started, and the major championships are fast approaching. The few months after the Olympics were crazy, exciting and very busy. I have meet and spoken to thousands of Australian’s, telling them the story of how our K4 became Olympic Champions.

It’s a really humbling feeling to know we have inspired so many people, and I’m sure some young kid will do the same in the future. I also had a well earned break after the Olympic Games, and since Christmas have began to get myself ready for the Surf and Kayak Australian titles in April.

The good news is, we will be launching our Aussie K4 website in the next 2 weeks. It will be easier to keep up to date on our training and racing schedule, and what’s happening in our lives. It gives us a chance to connect with people and offer our experience and knowledge to keen paddlers and sportspeople. Coming soon aussiek4.com

Just a quick update – we’ve made it through to the K4 1000m final which will be held Thursday morning (9 August) at Eton Dorney after winning our Semi Final today. Check here for the schedule.

The Olympics have started, and we’re still in training from our base in Hungary. It feels a bit surreal that it’s begun and we’re still here. We’re sticking to a plan though, which means training from our base right through until we race in the second week of the Games. Being here means we watched the Opening Ceremony from the comfort of our rooms on TV rather than being in the stadium, but we did create our own athlete parade in our Opening Ceremony gear down a backstreet in Szolnok from our Hotel to our restaurant. Thought we may as well make the most of our outfits, so pedestrians and street signs got to enjoy the spectacle. In these last days until we head to London, my wife Rach has arrived to see me (I haven’t seen her since April, so it’s been a long stint apart), and our coach Jimmy has been over to check out the course in London to put the final preparations in place for our arrival next week. Besides that, training’s been going really well and it’s awesome to watch the Games events on TV. There have been some freakish results already. Looking forward to seeing more records fall and new champions rise. I’m so stoked to be a part of such a massive and historical sporting event.

Watching the Aussie Olympic water polo team have a win in Budapest with the K4 guys. Thanks for the Aussie Oi gear Thomas Whalan!

It’s good to get out of the Hungarian country town, Szolnok,  that we live and train in at the moment – and visit Budapest on the weekends. Besides that, we’ve been keeping ourselves entertained by watching Eurosport in between training. Yesterday Federer won Wimbledon against Andy Murray and today Cadel might take the yellow jersey from Wiggins in the Tour. He’s only sitting 10 seconds behind him. Only 3 weeks and x10 K4 sessions to go until we race.