Double Paralympic cycling champion Mark Rohan on new adventures and inspirations

"Get busy living or get busy dying."

Words made famous by Tim Robbins, playing Andy Dufresne in the 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, and now very much the mission statement burning deep inside Irish Paralympic cycling legend Mark Rohan.

It's been nearly 15 years since a motorbike accident ended a rapidly rising gaelic football career. By 2009 he had tried table tennis, lawn bowls, archery, basketball, soccer coaching and tennis. Then came an invite to join the national Paracycling team at the Milan World Championships.

Rohan won a world title a year later and was soon a Sky Scholar and 2012 double Paralympic champion. He quit in 2015 a year before Rio, but don't think for a second he's spending the rest of his days dining out on his golden London memories.

The 34-year-old from Ballinahown reflects on his American and African inspirations, how he's too busy to worry about missing cycling, his boost as a Sky Academy Sports Scholar and what happens next...

After the London Games I was busy celebrating victory, travelling round schools and local football clubs showing off my medals.

It took me two months to get back into training, I went to America watching NBA and NFL games and was in California preparing for the 2013 season. I also got into the Sky Sports Living for Sport programme. I was competing, training in the States and started to think about retiring after Rio.

Results weren't going very well. I had two months in San Jose and got going with a Masters in Sports Management in Madrid. It was all part of making the transition from being an athlete to having another career. 

In November 2014, I visited an orphanage for disabled kids in Zambia and it was the most amazing two weeks in my life. It made me really reflect on things and put things into perspective, getting me to focus on what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was determined to give something back.  

I decided to pack it up in 2015. It wasn't difficult to retire. I just wasn't competitive and I wasn't enjoying it as much. I needed new challenges and I was never going to do as well as I did in London and I felt I had done it all.

I wanted to see what else there was in life. I had some business interests and I was after some interesting projects.

The sporting success was covered and I wanted a good academic background programme. I also invested in a farm in Portugal where I'm building a sports retreat with a focus on the mental side of preparation. It should be ready by the end of 2017.

The aim will be to make people think about why we do things and what we do. I want to blend that with physical training and hopefully give back to those less fortunate.

I'm hoping to attract athletes from northern Europe for the winter, plus there will be corporate team-building to help people refocus their lives where they can exercise, meditate and improve self-awareness with a more holistic approach.

I was 30 when I got on the Sky Scholarship scheme. I had decided to manage myself, covering my finances and taxes.

From a Sky perspective, just having the brand linked with me increased my profile so much in Ireland and it opened up so many doors.

I had photo shoots, I learned how to act around professional people and how to contact people. All the major stuff was the communication skills, being on TV, how to interview, shape questions, all these things I have since used in my everyday life.

It was perfect for me and it was great to tap into those people. You can be pro-active or reactive and if you're pro-active then I've found that most people are more than willing to help.

Being a Scholar gave me huge confidence. Just the visiting Sky Sports and seeing the scale of the operation was immense. When you introduce yourself and say you're from Sky Sports and that they're the brand that's backing you - that's a good feeling.

Paralympics sports is not that big and so to be linked with Sky and tap into their expertise gave me a great boost.

Spending a day with my mentor and presenter Sean Fletcher at Herne Hill velodrome helped me see the evolution of sport and made me think about people with disability and how people are treated equally now. It made me realise how far everything had come.

The TV adverts involving me and the other Scholars in the run-up to London was mad. People were coming up to me saying "you're the guy from the Sky ad" and "you're the world champion". It was incredible.

You can look back on Google or youtube or whatever and see those adverts. When you're in the moment you're so focused on winning medals. I'm sure I will look back in 10 years and realise even more what a great thing it was for me.

I don't seem to have much time for riding at the moment. Everything is geared towards my MBA and I hopefully graduate in July. I can see myself getting back into basketball and playing more team sports.

I was lucky enough to be a mentor on the Sky Academy's Living for Sport. It's an initiative for schools using sports stars and skills learnt through sport to build confidence and develop life skills.

I could see all the benefits of this to make social change and it uses sport to make a positive social impact on people's lives. 

The Rio Olympics and Paralympics is not far away now and I would recommend any Scholar and athlete to enjoy the journey and don't focus too much on the goal of the Games.

They shouldn't focus their success on results and medals and they should try to embrace the moment, learning from as many people as they can and learn as much as possible.

I'll be in California on an internship with a soccer team while it's going on in Brazil. When I watch it, I definitely won't have any thoughts that I should stuck with the cycling.

I will just keep going and I like to stay busy. My motivation is to make a living but it will never be profit driven. Get busy living or get busy dying!

WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS

11-12 JUNE: Siobhan O'Connor, Mare Nostrum, Barcelona

10-16 JUNE: IPC Athletics European Championships in Grosseto, Italy

15 JUNE: Holly Bradshaw, Welsh Open

23-26 JUNE: Lucy Garner, National Road Cycling Champs, Stockton-on-Tees 

24-26 JUNE: Holly Bradshaw, Jessica Judd at British Championships, Birmingham

25-26 JUNE: Quillan Isidore, British BMX Round 7 & 8, Burgess Park