HOME AND AWAY: OLYMPIC VETERAN GER OWENS:THE RIGOURS of full-time campaigning are not an obstacle for double Olympic veteran Ger Owens at the end of an 'off-year' following the Beijing Games and ahead of London 2012. Decision-time is looming for the 30-year-old, 470-class helm from Dun Laoghaire as he looks to his hard-won experiences gained over seven years on the road, writes DAVID BRANIGAN

Committing to another cycle of training, events and non-stop travel will be at the peak of an emotional learning-curve that started in earnest after college, which Owens wistfully recalled.

“Suddenly you’re a full-time athlete and making every bad call in the book – you can only learn from it,” he said.

“We were up and down (the results) like a yo-yo; we had the talent and the dedication but that was all.”

The early days delivered bitter lessons when wins at events in Ireland were quickly followed by placing last at Olympic level competitions overseas. It quickly became apparent that mere talent wasn’t enough.

“Getting the psychology right is a massive part of a high-performance campaign,” said Owens, who highlighted the British team’s consistent success as an easy example, even if drawing from a massive population base.

An Olympic sailing essentially breaks down into several key parts: boat-handling, technical, including equipment and tactics, fitness, finance and the partnership aspects of a two-person plus coach team.

But lifestyle is also an equal element that also demands 10 out of 10 performance.

Only when each of the components achieves a similar no-compromise high standard will the psychological goal be achieved.

A typical campaign day for Owens is consumed by training, travel or competition.

For the first, a 90-minute run starting at 5.30am followed by breakfast and administration leads to a two-hour gym session of either weight-training or a cardio workout.

On-the-water training before and after lunch continues until around 5pm or nightfall.

Friends often seem envious of long road journeys to different venues but realise little of the overnight trips and shared driving with partner teams.

Competitions such as the European pre-Olympic regattas are the most enjoyable as the organisers set the schedule and the responsibility is transferred leaving the sailors to sail and relax between races.

Despite being based in Mallorca, there is little rest and no recreation; evenings are routinely dinner followed by a late run and possibly a DVD movie though more often answering emails and setting up travel and shipping arrangements is the main activity.

“Living with someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week is like being in a relationship – except without the good stuff!” joked Owens.

But the intensity of the lifestyle builds a strong work ethic between a two-person crew.

“Its like a pilgrimage, it breaks you down to such an extent that you become vulnerable and you have each other so that by the time you reach the starting line of an actual Olympic race and you start to shake, you still have one another for back-up.”

The sailing isn’t the difficult part of a campaign, maintained Owens, it’s the “getting-on and putting-up with each other” that poses the biggest challenge.

Initially, at the start of a campaign, every problem is a big problem but the solution is to ensure that everything gets discussed and resolved.

“If ever we’re deadlocked and can’t agree, I get my way to decide the issue but that’s only had to happen once or twice,” recounted Owens of his Beijing 2008 campaign with best friend and crew member Phil Lawton.

That journey through qualification and selection to represent Ireland in the 470 in Qingdao peaked with a total of just 19 days at home in Ireland in one eight-month period prior to the Games.

And these were mainly for coaching sessions that Owens gave to earn money towards their costs.

Lawton was able to commit around seven days each month on average due to academic and personal commitments so Owens managed the logistics of moving equipment from venue to venue.

But after a year out following Beijing, the time to decide on whether to mount a third campaign to compete at the London 2012 Olympic regatta at Weymouth is drawing closer.

“I’d never do a campaign just to do it – I’d only do it to win,” maintains Owens.

“Over the last year it’s not the sailing that I miss, it’s the competing. The passion and drive is still there.

“Now that I’m older and wiser and know the task I’d be taking on, its very difficult to find and ask another person to take all that on as crew,” he said.

Yet the rewards are still there, even if a medal or even top five aren’t achieved.

Owens and Lawton won their share of races, as if to prove their potential, though, this seemed perfectly normal to them.

“When we were winning races it didn’t come to us as a shock – it’s what we expected.

“When you put it all on the line and risk everything, you can’t but not be rewarded, regardless of the result,” said Owens.

But the demands of full-time are considerable and at 30, the twin pressure of starting a career at home plus sourcing the funds for a project during a deep recession are all in the mix.

Finding a sailing partner, sourcing the funding, balancing a ‘real-world’ career all form part of the balancing act now in play for Owens who will decide in the coming months. But could his decision already have been made? A definitive answer is not forthcoming other than perhaps a small clue.

“I think I’d find it difficult to watch the Olympics on TV when they’re on in London and I’m only next door to the sailing venue,” he said.

Time will tell but the voice of experience looks likely to become the ultimate arbiter and an Irish Olympic aspirant stands in the balance.