It has been two weeks since I announced my retirement and during that period I have had a chance to reflect on my time in the sport which has spanned more than two thirds of my life! I look back on my career and I am very happy and proud of what I have achieved; I didn’t accomplish absolutely everything that I set out to achieve but there are certainly a lot of boxes ticked and I can honestly say that I gave it my all and I think that I did my best. But just being in this sport, being a professional canoeist, I have gained more than just medals. The sport has given me so much in so many ways and for that I will always be grateful.

One of the best things about a career in sport is that you get to travel the world and meet some wonderful people along the way and I have certainly done that. I have created friendships in all corners of the globe. There are many people with whom I have shared the happiness of victory, the sadness of defeat, the painful yet satisfying training sessions, the laughter and banter on training camp and best of all shared an Olympic Games experience with, I will never forget those people.

It has been the most spectacular journey but not without its highs and lows.  I have certainly had my challenges both on and off the water but that is all part of sport. I never expected it to be easy or to travel a smooth path and it certainly wasn’t, but then nothing worth achieving was ever easy.

When I try to identify just one highlight during the last 20 years of training, competing and travelling in the sport it is impossible. However, to name a few… I would certainly include competing at the Olympic Games in 2000 and in 2008. On both occasions I was disappointed with my results but each time the experience was incredible and just being part of an Olympic Games, something that only 350 people in the country get to do every 4 years, that’s pretty special. I always get asked which World Championship victory was the best or means the most to me and that is a very tricky question to answer. Out of 6 gold medals I find it virtually impossible to split the first one in 1999, which was special because it was the first and winning the first is always tough especially since I had finished 2^nd two times before that. Then in 2001 Helen Gilby and I won the K2 race quite unexpectedly and that holds some very poignant memories. Finally coming back to win the 2005 World Championships in Perth after 2 years out with illness is also up there in my list of favourite achievements. That was an emotional victory to say the least, in fact I burst into tears mid-way through an interview with Eurosport when talking about it, needless to say that was embarrassing and I had to beg them not to air it!

Other highlights include the post championship parties which generally involved a lot of alcohol, a lot of dancing and craziness as everyone lets off a lot of steam at the end of a season. When I recollect the training camps, although often long and tedious I also recall a lot of laughter, good banter and imagination in trying to entertain ourselves in between training sessions. After 3 weeks in Temple Sur Lot (training centre in France) the smallest things would amuse us! Of course I had my fair share of tears and low moments but generally I will look back with fantastic memories of the many good times I had, the fascinating people I met and the friendships that I created.  

When I think about my favourite moments, generally it’s the people who made those moments and I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported me throughout my career. There are too many to list and you probably know who you are. However, I would like to highlight a handful of people because without these people I probably would never have achieved everything that I have. I’ll start close to home.. my parents, my husband Neil and my sister Zara. Andrew Pindar and Pindar, Christina Domecq and SpinVox, Miklos Simon, Roland Lawler, Peter Terry and Fred Jobin.

After so many years in the sport it is hard to let go and sad to say goodbye but on the other hand it is exciting to embark on a new career (in sports broadcasting) and to take the next step along my journey.

A final thank you to everyone who reads my website/blog and for all of your messages over the years.

Anna xx

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Today I attended the launch of a fantastic project for the Special Olympics (of which I am an ambassador), it was in association with the Vodafone foundation and is called the Youth Unified Football Development Project. This groundbreaking football programme has been designed to break down the social barriers between young British athletes with learning disabilities and those without, by brining them together on the same team. It is such a wonderful initiative which will create a great team spirit between the different athletes, build friendships and also help to reduce discrimination. When these youngsters train and compete together, hopefully they will develop a greater understanding, respect and acceptance of learning disabilities. What a brilliant example of sport overcoming barriers.

The launch was kicked off, literally, with a football match between a Special Olympics Unified team from Merseyside (comprising of a mixture of special Olympic footballers and able football players) against the All Parliamentary Football squad. This was then followed by a reception at the House of Commons hosted by the some of the MPs on the team.

All in all, a very inspiring afternoon.

Since I have been back from Beijing it has been full steam ahead on the plans for my wedding. Its all going well, not too stressful and everything pretty much under control. I had my last dress fitting last week and since I am not training at the moment I am hoping that I don’t change shape too much in 2 weeks!

Zara, my sis and chief bridesmaid organised my hen party which was a couple of weekends ago. It was a fantastic weekend, lots of drunkenness, fun and hilarity! We kicked off with dinner at the Greek Vine, which involved tasty Greek food, followed by plate smashing, limbo contests, belly dancing and lots of cheesy dancing. The restaurant practically turned into a nightclub, it was hilarious! I started off with red wine, but then we celebrated with champagne and later I was given some dodgy shots, I was thoroughly hammered by the time we left and duly sick at home!

The day time activity for Saturday was called ‘crazy gang’ which was just brilliant. The three activities included sumo wrestling in giant inflatable fat suits, this was the funniest thing ever, I cried with laughter. We then did beer keg racing, which was literally a motorised beer keg which you sat on and raced round a slalom course! Finally we played 5-a-side human table football, which was a really clever invention and so akin to normal table football. Although this was fun, I was disappointed because my team didn’t win! All in all however, a fantastic afternoon.

All that before heading off to Carwash night club in London, which is a 70s themed club where everyone has to dress up 70s style. We all made a great effort with our outfits, which were very bright, loud, very 70s and quite amusing. We had a wonderful night of cheesy 70s dancing. Photo on the diary page..http://www.annahemmings.com/diarydetail.asp?ID=85

Partying, drinking and dancing seems to be quite a consistent theme on my time off these last few weeks! Last weekend Neil and I planned a quiet weekend but it didn’t turn out so when we ended up going to the Olympian party at China White night club in London. I had never been there before and despite the drinks being ridiculously expensive (£20 for a round of two drinks!) it was actually pretty cool, with a really funky Chinese style décor inside. Lots of dancing and alcohol later, we didn’t get home until 5am, not such a quiet weekend after all!

So with consecutive big weekends and lots in between I am starting to feel tired and run down! However, somehow I managed to be ‘hot babe of the week’ on the Sport website! Check it out on http://www.sport.co.uk/news/Hot_Babe_at_Sportcouk/7048/Stop!_Hemmer_Time.aspx

I’ve been rather slack on the blogging front recently, so I apologise for that, however I needed a bit of time to reflect on the Olympics. Although our result still disappoints me, I do look back at the Olympic experience with fantastic memories. The Olympics is the world’s greatest sporting event and as we all witnessed there is so much history made and drama to be enjoyed and just to be a part of that is incredible. It was also inspiring to be included in the most successful Team GB ever. As an Olympian I know how much work, dedication and commitment it takes to just reach the Olympic Games, the next challenge is then being able to perform on the day when you need to, so for all those that did that I have the utmost respect for.

Jess and I finished racing earlier than expected and as such we had to make the most of the situation we found ourselves in, this meant sight-seeing, watching other events and I felt duty bound to party hard for those who couldn’t! So we did just that! I visited the Great Wall of China, which was incredible, I also went to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heavens and Tiananmen Square and what an experience they all were – Chinese history in all its glory, the temples were amazing.  

I felt obliged to check out as many restaurants, bars and nightclubs as I could in the space of a week, just so that I could come back and tell you all how cool the Beijing night life was! Finally, we went to the closing ceremony which was as expected, quite spectacular. Promise to put some more photos up soon…

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