Rowing: The single life proves irresistible to Searle

One half of a famous Olympic double act has added another oar to his armoury as he sets out on a solitary pursuit of rowing gold. Mike Rowbottom met him

It may seem curious for a rower who has won Olympic gold and bronze medals to complain of blisters on the hands, but there it is. Greg Searle has got blisters on his hands, and it's his own fault.

Still only 25, the man who has had the kind of success of which most rowers can only dream in the coxed pairs and fours has now struck out on his own in the single sculls.

Traditionally, single sculls is rowing's equivalent of the goalkeeping position - you don't have to be mad, but it helps. Searle, one of the least mad individuals you could imagine, is well aware of the implicit expectation in swapping one oar for two.

As he prepares for his first major test in the new event, at this weekend's World Cup in Munich, he is coming to terms with a challenge unlike anything he has faced before.

The blisters have arrived as a result of manipulating two oars for the first time in a rowing career which began at Hampton School 10 years ago. That is but one of the problems of readjustment.

Physically, Searle - at 6ft 5in and 15 and a half stone - is perfectly ready to dominate his event. An indoor rowing ergonometer score of 5min 44.1sec for 2,000 metres, until recently a world record, is further evidence of his capability.

Adapting all this power is the task which will provide Searle with the challenge he needs to keep him in the sport at the highest level.

"My whole body has become lopsided over after years in the other events," he said. "The technique of the rowing action is different. The pace of the boat is different - the oars are in the water for longer. So you need more powerful, long strokes, whereas in the pairs and fours, it is more of a 'bang, bang' explosive stroke."

Searle likens his readjustment to that of a golfer learning a new swing. Like Nick Faldo, he has reinvented himself. It is, as he readily acknowledges, taking a big a risk. And the riskiest, bravest part of it all goes beyond technical changes.

What Searle has done is to jettison the camaraderie integral to every other rowing event, something which has been of crucial importance to a man who has always thought of himself as one of the boys.

"The team thing is one of the most attractive things about rowing," he said. "You don't have any glory boys. I can't even think of any other sports where you do exactly the same thing. It is less interesting to watch on TV, but it does make your interdependence that much greater. You are part of a special relationship with other guys where you are all equal."

But now Searle, the rower who many observers have long thought is more equal than others, has taken himself away from all that.

There are no mates to josh with. Particularly, there is no Jonny, the older brother who urged him on in the sport during their time at Hampton School and with whom he won the Olympic coxed pairs in 1992 and a fours bronze in Atlanta last summer. And yes, he is fully aware of the paradox.

"The solitariness is a worry," he said. "Not having Jonny in the boat with me takes some getting used to. He won't be there to chat with five minutes before the race and give me a little boost.

"I am wondering now whether I am doing enough in training because there is no one else with me."

For all that, Searle the younger acknowledges the strong impulse which is behind his latest switch. It is, essentially, the desire to be judged on his own merits.

"You do find in the singles that people are trying to show they have got something that other people haven't got," he said. "To some extent I probably do have that feeling too. It is natural to want to be the best in the boat and, if that is the case, I might as well be the only one in the boat."

Single sculling is rowing stripped to the bone. Searle compares it with the 100 metres - hard work comes into it but, essentially, you can either do it or you can't. There is no hiding place for the single sculler. The event makes a complete examination of his will to win - which is the ultimate attraction for Greg Searle.

"It is something I have learned about over the years racing with my brother," he recalled. "Jonny would always sit behind me when we competed, and I got used to hearing his voice giving commands and knowing there was someone there who was as hungry as I was for success.

"When we have our backs to the wall, we are both the same. I would like to think I can be as hard as he is when it comes down to it.

"There is a mentality which is a winning mentality. It only really comes out in a big race, and by that I mean an Olympic or a world final. You don't find out what the real deal is until you are actually in a situation like that.

"People might do their showing off on the water, or even off the water, but you get a pretty good idea about who is really able to do it."

That hardness was evidenced by Searle's decision not to throw in his lot with the Fab Four - he decided against joining the double Olympic champions Steven Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in their newly formed four, which will have its first outing in Munich this weekend.

"Some people questioned if I was doing a sensible thing by not joining the others," he said. "I'm intrigued to see how the four will do. But I don't want to be one of the people in the boat. I'd rather be my own person in my own boat."

It may be coincidence, but Searle's willingness to miss that boat comes at a time when he is planning to marry his girlfriend, Jenny.

After the transitory intensity of the Atlanta Games, the life of a man once listed among Britain's 50 most eligible batchelors is being reordered. While his brother is concentrating on his career as a solicitor, he has taken up a new job with the management motivation company Lane 4, which numbers the former Olympic swimming champion Adrian Moorhouse among its directors.

Searle believes it will take two years for him to discover his true worth as a single sculler. The 2000 Sydney Olympics is the goal - and yes, of course, he is thinking in terms of winning the gold.

In the meantime, he is planning to create consternation among the 10 or so leading exponents of his new event. "I want to take a few scalps this year," he said.

The Searle brothers are part of Olympic history, not least for the picture of their medal ceremony in Barcelona, which featured Greg with his head cast back as if in exhaustion, Jonny beaming beneath corkscrew curls, and the cox, Gary Herbert, with a face contorted by tears.

In fact, what Searle was experiencing at that moment was not exhaustion, but elation.

"I had a feeling of incredible contentment, not a care in the world," he recalled. "I realised I had done something that could have been something I'd strived for for my whole life and never achieved."

It is a feeling he wants once again. On his own terms.