Grant seeks new rowing challenge for LA Games

Imogen Grant's gold in Paris made up for disappointment at the Tokyo Olympics when she and Emily Craig finished just 0.01 seconds outside the medals

Olympic gold medallist Imogen Grant is looking to find out where she "might fit" in rowing after committing herself to trying to win a place at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Grant and partner Emily Craig won the lightweight double sculls in Paris this summer and is also a double world and European champion.

But the 28-year-old from Cambridge must now find an alternative place in the GB team as the event will not be part of the regatta in four years' time.

"It's definitely quite daunting, I've got some things I need to prove, I think, to the selectors but there's also a much wider range of opportunities," Grant told BBC Look East.

"It's been very focused for the last three years, I knew what boat I was going to be racing in, I knew who I was going to be racing with, and I knew what we wanted to do whereas this time is much more open, more possibilities."

Since her golden exploits in the French capital, Grant has begun a job as a doctor in Oxford, having completed a medical degree at Cambridge University.

"I feel like a real doctor. I've been working in hospitals, I've really seen the whole spectrum from that side of things and I'm still managing to do some rowing on the side," she said.

Despite that, the lure of another Olympics has proved too strong for her to turn her back on elite level sport.

She said: "I didn't know how I was going to feel after the racing in Paris. I didn't know if we were going to win, I knew we were favourites, I knew we had a good chance, but I didn't know if I'd feel happy and satisfied to end my career after Paris.

"But pretty much immediately, I knew there was more enjoyment that I could find by doing rowing at a high level.

"It's the most incredible experience being an athlete at an Olympic Games. Whether or not I'm in the running for a medal in LA, just getting there and being able to be part of that experience and being part of that Olympics movement, I know it would mean that the journey was worth it.

"The lightweight double is not going to be run as an event so I'm going to have to find where I might fit in the sport of rowing at an Olympics Games."

During a visit to Cambridge, Imogen Grant helped retrieve a replica medal that had been placed round the neck of a statue of King Henry VIII at Trinity College in her honour

Grant returned to Cambridge to last week to talk to students at her former school, Stephen Perse.

"She had a lot of good life lessons. I enjoy sport a lot and I'll try and take some of those lessons on board and try and put them to good use. I think when I go to college, I might start rowing," said year 8 pupil Toby.

"I was really inspired by what she said. Seeing someone who made it so far, not even starting rowing until she was at uni, she blossomed into a really professional athlete and that's exactly what I want to do," added Sophie from Year 13, who takes part in the sport of archery.

With plenty of time before the LA Games, Grant said she was in no hurry to get everything "lined up and sorted out" as far as her next step in rowing is concerned.

She added: "I'm trying hard not to think too far into the future and get my hopes up, and just deal with enjoying the now, doing what I'm enjoying at the moment and seeing where that takes me in the next four years."