Great Britain's rowers are ready to make these Olympic Games their most successful since London 1908.
Performance director David Tanner is confident with British rowers
Great Britain's rowers are ready to make these Olympic Games their most successful since London 1908, according to performance director David Tanner.
The action begins at Eton Dorney on Saturday morning with Britain's unprecedented 48-strong team aiming to retain their crown as the leading Olympic rowing nation.
To achieve that, Tanner believes Britain's minimum requirement is to match the six medals - two gold, two silver and two bronze - they won in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics.
That was enough to put Britain top of the medal table.
However, the ambition and the expectation within GB Rowing is for more in London, including a first ever Olympic gold medal for a British women's crew.
In 1908, Britain won eight medals, including four golds, at the Olympic regatta held on River Thames at Henley.
Healthy
Tanner said: "I feel that we are in very, very good shape. This is the best team we have brought to a Games - a team within a team - and I am confident that we will deliver on the water.
"We have all arrived healthy and we are ready to go.
"The training camps (since the Munich World Cup regatta) have gone very, very well. We went away to do a lot of work and that was done successfully.
"Dorney has been transformed. The thought of having 26,000 people coming here for racing at 9.30 in the morning is thrilling.
"We have to do our job on the water."
Women
For the first time ever, it is Britain's women who are carrying the rowing flag into the Olympics.
The regatta opens on Saturday with heats for the women's pair, with Helen Glover and Heather Stanning favourites to win gold after dominating the World Cup series.
World double scull champions Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins come into the Olympics on the back of a 21-race unbeaten streak and they are also hot favourites for gold.
The lightweight men's four - brothers Pete and Richard Chambers, Chris Bartley and Rob Williams - also boast strong gold medal credentials after a victory at the Munich World Cup regatta described by Tanner as "sensational".
Britain have won gold in the men's four at each of the last three Olympic Games and once again head coach Jurgen Grobler has made it his flagship heavyweight crew.
Andrew Triggs Hodge, Pete Reed and Tom James return as defending champions alongside world champion Alex Gregory - but the battle for gold in the four could be the tightest of all.
Chuckle
Australia, whose veteran oarsman Drew Ginn stoked the rivalry this week by claiming Britain are scared of them, and the United States will both be strong.
James responded on Thursday, accepting the challenge and he took the opportunity to chuckle at Australia's recent sporting woes.
James said: "I think the Aussies have always wanted to beat the British, especially on our home soil. You can easily see why it's their motivation.
"If we turned up here and there was no one to race, it would be a walk in the park. The fact that someone is us out as the opposition, that's great."
Elsewhere, defending lightweight men's double champions Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter carry with them no form but a reputation for being able to deliver when it counts on the biggest stages.
The British men's eight, stroked by 20-year-old Constantine Louloudis and boasting 40-year-old Greg Searle, an Olympic champion from 1992, could emerge as one of the stories of the Games.
Searle, who decided to come out of retirement following the 2009 World Championships in Poznan, added: "It's a privilege to row with such a talented crew.
"It will feel different to 20 years ago - but it will also be the same. I wanted to win then and we are ambitious to do the same here."
