Kayaker Rachel Lovell is revelling in the build-up to the London Olympics, with the Games just 100 days away.
Few athletes, if any, are revelling in the build-up to the London Olympics more than kayaking mum and former British paddler Rachel Lovell.
After injury and then pregnancy shattered her Olympic dreams in Athens and Beijing, the 2012 Games - 100 days away - represent third time lucky for the 34-year-old who knows she'll be a marked woman in London.
Lovell was Great Britain's leading sprint kayaker up until 2004 when she lived in south-west London and trained on the Games kayaking venue at Eton Dorney.
But now firmly entrenched as the stroke in Australia's medal-contending K4 500m boat, she was stoking fires in the ever-simmering Ashes rivalry as fellow athletes celebrated the 100-day countdown on the Gold Coast on Wednesday.
"We always want to beat the English," Lovell said with her pure, regal accent.
"I'm really excited because it will be such familiar surroundings.
"Obviously, they think I'm a bit of a traitor but I think my story is different in that I didn't move to Australia because of the sport but because of the lifestyle and then got back into my sport."
Her mind-boggling journey into the Australian Olympic team is a result of contracting compartment syndrome in her forearms before the Athens Games, love of the Queensland climate and a last-ditch experiment to achieve her lifelong ambition.
Lovell retired six years ago when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with the eldest of her two sons, Lochie (five) and Finn (three) but decided to have one more crack at the start of 2010.
"It's always been my dream to go to an Olympics and win a gold medal and I didn't think I should finish there so I decided to give it one more go and, wow, I've finally got here," she said.
"It's all been a bit of an experiment but it's still going in the right direction and I haven't reached my peak and I'll be peaking at the Games."
Lovell stressed her K4 crew also including Hannah Davis and Lyndsie Fogerty, who won bronze in the event in 2008, and Jo Brigden-Jones were rapidly improving together after finishing fifth at last year's world titles, 2.96 seconds behind winners Hungary and also behind the Brits.
Based at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, her links with the British team remain, as brother-in-law Trevor Hunter coaches the women she'll compete against.
"But maybe that's good because we can get an insight into the British team and I can find out some secrets," she quipped.
"I don't tell him much about our team but he tells me things he probably shouldn't tell me about!"
Lovell credited the heat Down Under for getting her back in the boat and also making Australian paddlers competitive against the European powerhouses.
"You're in such a disadvantage in all the other countries," she said.
"Winter is not cold here and you don't have to go anywhere else because the water's frozen."
