Greetings from Qingdao, where the final preparations are being made for the sailing regatta at the Olympic Games. This is my fourth Olympics and my second as a Finn sailor, the class in which I won a second gold medal in Athens four years ago, to go with the gold I won in the Laser class in Sydney in 2000 and the silver in Atlanta four years earlier.

Things have changed immensely for me since 1996. Then I was 19, fresh from winning the World Youth Championships, and because lottery funding had not yet come in, the sailors were proper amateurs. People had to beg their employers for time off work and some saved money by sleeping in the back of their cars. I owe a great deal to my parents, who financed my Olympic dream.

Rod Carr was the team manager in 1996 and it was his fourth Games, having been coach for the previous three. He had learnt from his experiences before Atlanta and had tried to put some facilities in place - on a small budget - to make life better for the British sailors. He struck a deal with the local sailing club in Savannah so that we could have a base to train from and rented a big old clap-board house in the grounds of the yacht club for us to live in during the Olympics.

The arrival of the lottery programme in 1997 has made a huge difference to the way we prepare. Great Britain has sent 18 sailors to Qingdao, but the support staff is larger. As well as coaches for each of the 11 classes, we have a series of “ologists” to look after us. Let me introduce you to some members of my team.

Stephen Park, known as Sparky, is the British Olympic manager. He has overseen every part of our Olympic preparations, from arranging accommodation to providing coaching and support. He has built a united team, with superb morale.

Sparky introduced me to Jez Fanstone, my coach, who I have been working with for two years. We work well together, even though he is based in New Zealand, which has made meeting up difficult. He has been there for all the main training camps and regattas, however, and we keep in touch by e-mail and phone. I know when I have done something wrong and what to do better, but it always helps to have someone to back me up and to run through a checklist with.

I also still work with David Howlett, my coach at the 2004 Olympics. He has a great technical knowledge and a big involvement with the manufacturers of the key components of the boat, the guys who build the hull, the mast and the rest of it. We have struck up a good relationship with an Argentine sail designer, Juan Garay, who has done a fantastic job in creating sails that deal with Qingdao's special light-wind conditions.

Meteorology is an important part of our planning. In 1996 we had David Houghton, one of the top people at the Met Office, who gave up his time to support us. Now we have a full-time meteorologist, Libby Greenhalgh.

We have been studying the Beijing weather since before the Athens Games. Libby gives us hourly weather briefings on the conditions that can be expected and what to look out for based on her experience. Little ship-to-shore contact is allowed during the Olympics, so the input of other sailors when they come off the water is also important.

On the training side, I work from time to time with Steve Gent, a strength and conditioning coach, and Pete Cunningham, a physiologist, although I generally sort out my own training. I have been doing weights two or three times a week and the rest of the time is for cycling or running.

The Britain team also have their own doctor, David Gorrod, whose most important role arguably is knowing all the doping regulations; a nutritionist; a lawyer; a rules expert; and a couple of interpreters. I am afraid that I have not mastered much more than “hello”, “goodbye” and “thank you” in Mandarin.

As we near the start of the Games, the sea has been turning blue again. People were worried a few weeks ago because the race course had been covered in green algae, which was hard to sail through, but thousands of volunteers in fishing boats have been trying to clear the sea of sludge. The knock-on effect is that restaurant prices have rocketed because all the fishermen have been out catching algae instead of fish.

The only other worry is the surreal fog that descends quickly, making Qingdao resemble Gotham City. It is a reminder that we can have all the technical support, but if the weather closes in on us, we are helpless. Hopefully that will clear by the start of the regatta. Wish me luck.

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