Denise Lewis in action over the hurdles in the women's heptathlon (© Getty Images)
An Olympiad can literally be a lifetime in the world of athletics but Denise Lewis is determined to show that she is not yesterday’s girl just yet.
Four years ago in Sydney, Lewis, the British heptathlete, wearing a bandage to support a leg injury, won Olympic gold with a stirring performance, just about making her way across the finish line in the 800 metres in seventh place in her race but with enough points for glory.
Since she has competed in only one major, last year’s World Championships in Paris, after giving birth to a daughter in 2002.
Title defence - Giving it her all
But with just over 100 days until the start of her event at the Olympic Games in Athens, she has no intention of letting her title slip without knowing she has given her all.
"Winning the Olympic gold medal means that whatever happens, you are in the record books forever,"said Lewis. "No one can take that away from you. But you move on and set new goals."
"When I look back to four years ago, I am a different athlete because of the amount of competitions I have not been involved with. That competitive edge is lost because of the lack of events."
"In a way it is bound to happen. When you compete all that time, you learn things new each year, experience different experiences and build in strength. You are taking steps all the time to the next event."
"It is not easy to make a comeback when you have had a couple of years of lapsing. I won my first Commonwealth title in 1994 and competed at the major events every year from then on until 2000."
"Of course you don’t forget what it is all about but it is a case of building again. I know if I can get myself in the shape I am sure I can reach, then anything can happen."
Lewis showed signs of that when she finished fifth in Paris but an athlete who has a personal best of 6831 knows that she might have to break the 7000 point barrier if she is to retain her title because of the way that Sweden’s Carolina Kluft has stormed onto the senior stage.
Ten months after Sydney, Lewis pulled out of the World Championships in Edmonton on the eve of the event and then in 2002 missed both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
If the lack of events had been an inevitable and unavoidable problem, she is determined to be in Athens in the best shape possible with both fitness and that ‘competitive edge’ by taking part in domestic and international meetings and having another close taste of what she will have to beat to win gold.
Gotzis - Going 'head to head' with Kluft
At the end of the month Lewis is competing in the multi-events competition in Gotzis, Austria, where she will meet Kluft, who won in Paris with 7001.
Kluft is 21, 10 years younger than Lewis, but the British star has turned back the clock to Sydney to prepare herself.
She had been caught up in controversy after East German Dr Ekkart Arbeit had been part of her coaching team last year.
But she has changed her set up for this season and is being coached again by Dutchman Charles Van Commenee, as she was in 2000, and she is based in Birmingham, near to where she was born, and where he works.
It is the home of UK Athletics, the country’s federation, and as Van Commenee is the technical director for combined events in Britain, he is on hand.
They had split in 2001 but Lewis said: "We don’t talk about what happened in the past. We look forward. We both know the event inside out and we are realistic."
