It's tough having to drop out of the Olympics because of technical problems, but the disappointment would have been even greater if I had been in the lead when I had the accident. Realistically speaking, I really wasn't a candidate for the gold medal this time, but very few believed us.
Now it's four years until next Olympics. Time flies and I'm happy to have a long term goal to be working towards again. But right now I'm looking forward to a solid winter of proper foundation training. It will give me strength and stability so I can compete at the top through a whole season again. Now we're looking back on a fantastic comeback season which has given us one World Cup win, a medal in the European Championships and a World Cup title. At the beginning of this season, we couldn't even have dreamed about such great success.
I encountered a lot of disappointed people after the race in Beijing. With my limited foundation, it just wasn't realistic to expect the same kind of success as I had in Athens. We've repeatedly tried to convey in great detail to the media and people in general what my physical condition has been through the season, but it's been difficult getting them to actually believe what we've been saying.
I'm thrilled about the season this year. I'm back at the top again. I find no reason to be depressed because of a bad day in Beijing, technical problems and a bit of drama while training in the preceding days - it's all part of being an athlete. I've experienced unbelievably many gold medals through my career, and there will be more of them. We quickly put bad days behind us, only paying attention to the experiences which can be used for further improvement.
