Q&A with....Jamie Staff

BRITAIN'S Jamie Staff won his first Olympic gold medal in Beijing last year, smashing the team sprint world record with Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny.

LATE PEAKER: Jamie Staff picked up his first Olympic gold at the age of 35 in Beijing last year (Getty Images)

And the 36-year old celebrated his return to the track with gold at the UCI World Cup in Manchester in October.

Here he is talking to Sportsbeat's George Scott.

Q - How has your life changed since becoming an Olympic gold medallist in Beijing?

A - So much has happened in the past year or so, you're in a whirlwind and you think you're a celebrity for a while. It's fun and it was exciting to meet cool people and do different things.

It quietened down a bit and we had to do our next season so we didn't have much time off really. But once we got through that season, which finished in March, I took a few months off.  I started riding again in July and have been slowly getting back into it again.

Q - How did you spend your well-earned time off?

A - The first thing you want to do is spend time with your family because leading up to the Games you have to be really selfish with your time. We were gone for six weeks for the Olympics and you miss your family.

When you get home you want to be with them a lot but you're getting dragged left, right and centre doing things which you didn't kind of predict or expect so that got a bit frustrating. When you're training for the Olympics you don't even think about what's going to happen on the other side.

Q - Was it easy getting back onto the saddle again?

A - I've slowly got back into it but when I first started training I wasn't really mentally ready. But the more you do it, that excitement and enjoyment comes back again.

I've always been big on having time off both mentally and physically. I don't think enough people do it and that's why they burn out.

On the negative side it's hard getting back into it. When I got back to the track all the youngsters had been to the Europeans and junior worlds so they were all going really quickly and then there's this fat man just showing up, trying to get back on his bike, and it's really discouraging.

It's really hard mentally for the first few weeks because you suck, you're slow and you can't see the end - you just think it's hopeless.