Laura Collett

From the "horrific" last-day nerves to walking through Champions Park, the double Paris medallist debriefs with Pippa Roome

- Pippa Roome

“I’M not sure it’ll ever properly sink in,” says Laura Collett, two weeks after she led her British eventing team-mates Ros Canter and Tom McEwen to gold and secured individual bronze at the Paris Olympics.

“It’s such a whirlwind, you’re out there, then back to riding horses at home, going to Hartpury and Aston-le-Walls – I spent that time wondering, did it really happen?”

When Laura and I speak, she has just walked in the door from an “amazing” return trip to Paris, which made it all feel more real.

She explains: “Ros was always planning to go back for the closing ceremony. Then after we did well, she said, ‘You should come back.’ I thought, ‘It’s quite a hassle…’ and then I thought, ‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so don’t be ridiculous – get on and plan it.’ Even if I’m lucky enough to go to another Olympics, the next couple are so far away, you won’t be able to nip back.

“We had early times at Aston on Friday, took my car, drove into London, got the train, somehow crossed Paris and went straight to the athletics stadium.”

As well as the closing ceremony, “which got crazy when we realised Tom Cruise was on the roof ”, the pair did the walk through Champions Park at the Trocadéro Gardens.

“That was a completely insane experience – we had breakfast in a little cafe and suddenly realised that the streams of people were queuing to get into the park,” says Laura. “We got to go in the athletes’ lounge and had our make-up done – we felt like right little celebrities.

“We thought we’d walk as part of Team GB, but they do it by sport, so it was literally me and Ros walking down in front of all these people. I said, ‘I think I’m more nervous for this than I was for competing,’ and Ros just looked at me and said, ‘I don’t know, you looked pretty nervous before the showjumping.’”