Paul Bircher (pictured above, third left), 83, won silver in the British eights team at London 1948, and was also a three-times winner of the Boat Race with Cambridge.

Along with Mark Hunter (pictured above, third right), a Beijing 2008 gold medallist who won the lightweight double sculls with Zac Purchase, Bircher met with youngsters on the Hackney and Tower Hamlets rowing teams taking part in this summer's Thames Water London Youth Games regatta on June 9.

As a youngster, Hunter competed for Havering himself at the London Youth Games, which had a record 1,819 participants in 2011, and this summer's Games are fulfilling a key London 2012 legacy promise, to inspire a generation through sport.

"I do enjoy coming down and speaking to kids and just making them realise that we are normal people, we went to school just like everyone else and fell in love with a sport and wanted to be as best as we possibly could be," said Hunter, who is in Serbia with Purchase for the first World Cup regatta of the season.

"That is what it's all about.


"It was really interesting and enjoyable to meet Paul Bircher and listen to his stories; he is a really interesting character.

"You can really see how the Olympics and sport was developed and it was nice to meet someone who has actually been to a London Olympics.

"When I started rowing, the London Youth Games were one of my first big competitions and I remember we just missed out on winning and I was absolutely devastated.

"Learning about competition is what the London Youth Games does brilliantly."

Bircher said: "When I was at school there wasn't such a big crowd of young rowers as there is today, they're already very keen.

"Mark is a very interesting chap to talk to and an interesting illustration of the complete change that has taken place in rowing and in sports generally.

"I'm not totally convinced I would prefer today's atmosphere to my own.

"We did it for fun, we wanted to win and tried our damndest but we did it because we enjoyed it, and it was for personal enjoyment as much as anything else."


The issue of youth participation in sport is particularly important with rowing, which has a reputation in Britain for being a more elitist sport than others, and so the chance to increase the spectrum of backgrounds involved is key for Anthony Kendall, chairman of the London Youth Games Foundation.

"Since the London Youth Games Regatta was re-launched four years ago with the backing of Thames Water, it has been one of our major success stories," he said.

"Participation has increased almost seven-fold in that short time.

"The Thames Water London Youth Games Regatta delivers an invigorating competitive environment for young people interested in sailing, rowing or canoeing.

"For some of those young people to also have the opportunity to meet great Olympians like Paul Bircher and Mark Hunter is a real honour and will go some way towards inspiring a new generation of London rowers."

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