Grainger, who will be 40 at the time of the next Olympics, returned to training on Monday (September 22) at the British base in Caversham, near Reading, and has now rejoined the squad, who returned on Tuesday following a three-week break after winning 10 medals at the World Championships.

The squad will train for a week in the UK before heading on a significant visit to Brazil.

They will travel to Rio de Janeiro for a pre-Olympic orientation and training camp which will kick off the season in which Olympic qualification takes place.

British rowing officials had insisted that anyone wanting to be considered for a place at the Rio 2016 Games had to report for training by yesterday.

Katherine Grainger (left), pictured with Anna Watkins after winning the double sculls at the London 2012 Games, is back in training with a view to a possible Olympic comeback
©Getty Images

"I'm not really making long-term plans," Grainger told BBC Sport.

"A lot has to go well and fall into place.

"I have to get my fitness and my boat feel back and make sure I'm mentally where I want to be.

"The end point would be going all the way through to Rio, but I'm not making a commitment to that one just yet."

Explaining her decision on her Facebook page, Grainger - whose Olympic gold in the double scull with Anna Watkins, who has since retired, followed silver-medal performances at the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games - expressed her position with characteristic honesty and wit:

"It's now over two years since the London Olympics and it's really about time that decisions were made. For my own sanity as much as anything else. I've discussed, listened, thought, considered. And still felt none the wiser.

"So it's time to return to the boat and test the waters (literally). I've missed it, I love it, I want to see if I can be good at it again. No guarantees, no promises, but a start. Many people have said it's a risk, but in the words of Neil Simon the playwright 'If no one ever took risks, Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor'."

Katherine Grainger took to Facebook to announce she is returning to rowing ©Facebook/Katherine Grainger



She added: "I've agonised over this decision for a very long time. There was no one moment of 'eureka'.

"Some days, I would be driving and suddenly I would think 'That's me done, I'm never going to do rowing again. I'm ready for retirement. I'm prepared to walk away'.

"Then 48 hours later, I'd be doing something else and suddenly think 'I want to go back, I can't imagine why I wouldn't'."

A total of 20 of the British squad return as recently-crowned world champions. 

They include rowers in the men's eight and four as well as the women's pair and Para-rowing mixed coxed four.

The stand out performances of the Championships came from the men's four and women's pair.

Alex Gregory, Mohamed Sbihi, George Nash and Andrew Triggs Hodge dominated their final in Amsterdam to take gold whilst Heather Stanning and Helen Glover did the same and set a new world best time in the process.

But arguably the performance which overturned the form books the most came from the men's eight of Nathaniel Reilly O'Donnell, Matthew Tarrant, Will Satch, Matt Gotrel, Peter Reed, Paul Bennett, Constantine Louloudis and cox Phelan Hill. 

They took gold ahead of the favourites, Germany, and Poland in a compelling race.

The men's quadruple scull of Graeme Thomas, Sam Townsend, Charles Cousins and Peter Lambert lost out on gold by a mere 0.09sec of a second in an equally thrilling encounter.

Tom Aggar also brought home silver in the arms-shoulders men's single scull in a performance which underlined his return to top form.

Sir David Tanner, GB Rowing team performance director, said: "It's an important season for us as the World Championships in France in early September will double as the Olympic and Paralympic qualifying regatta."

"Next week's camp in Rio will be a great way to kick off the new year", he added.

Before the Rio departure, the GB rowing team will visit the home of their Official Analytics Partner, SAS Analytics, tomorrow in Marlow to hear about the kind of cutting-edge data analysis that is supporting and enhancing their training.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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August 2012: Grainger and Watkins take gold for Britain in women's double sculls