Lee Pearson is determined that he will leave a legacy to equestrian sport that will thrive long after London 2012.
Pearson aims to provide a riding centre for under-privileged people
Lee Pearson is determined that he will leave a legacy to equestrian sport that will thrive long after the London 2012 Olympic Games have finished.
The nine-time gold paralympic medallist plans to carry on after the London event, but his main focus could switch to establishing a high-class training facility at the Staffordshire farm he moved into just three months ago.
Pearson is eager to put plenty back into a sport that has given him so much, and an active search for potential funding is already under way.
"I have bought myself a farm in Staffordshire, and the intention is to try to find finance to build an international training centre," the 38-year-old said.
Requests
"I get requests weekly from clients around the world to come to training, able-bodied mainly, but also disabled.
"And I dream to be able to get out of bed in the morning, to ride my horses at the same location and help others.
"It is not to tick boxes, it genuinely is not. I want it to be a centre where we can help under-privileged people.
"I want a centre that is all inclusive, one that can help people that I feel deserve to have access to quality horses and training. That would be my dream.
"I love training horses, and I like competing. I don't think I will retire after London - I probably can't afford it, if I am honest, and I am also quite lazy in terms of changing things in my life."
Pearson, who won triple dressage gold in Sydney, Athens and Beijing, is set to ride his most recent Paralympics horse Gentleman in London, where he anticipates competition will be intense.
But despite being a man in demand as one of the most recognised faces in British Paralympic sport, he is experienced enough to know what awaits him this summer.
"Being as successful as I have been - the slow introduction from Sydney in 2000 to now and receiving more press and television coverage - I kind of know what it is going to be like and the enormity of it, how life-changing it is going to be.
"But I know the media won't be able to get hold of me in July. I can do all the 'lovely jubbly' things now, as I call them, but come July that won't be a priority.
"I am going to try and be really strict about that side of it. I am trying to keep myself very chilled.
"It's not just the Germans who could be strong contenders, it's the Danish, the Norwegians and a lot of the European countries that are naturally very strong.
"And then if the Americans arrive with top-quality horses that they can ride, then who knows? But I won't watch the opposition - I get too nervous.
"My angle on going into the arena is always the same, in that everyone else is better than me so I have to try even harder. I don't go into the arena thinking, 'I am Lee Pearson, I have won nine gold medals, I am unbeatable'.
"That approach makes me focused to try even harder."
Pearson, who first started competing in 1997 and was a world champion just two years later, has a 100% gold medal success rate at Paralympic Games.
Outstanding
And if he completes a fourth successive golden hat-trick at Greenwich Park, it would give him one more Paralympic title than Dame Tanni Grey Thompson and Welsh swimmer David Roberts.
"I am proud of my 100% success," he said, reflecting on his Paralympic career.
"Tanni has been an amazing ambassador, and her record is outstanding. What she has done for Paralympic athletes and disabled people around the world is inspirational.
"I am going to do my best. If that means I don't medal, so be it, if that means I come out with two individual gold medals and a team gold, then so be it.
"No-one can take away my nine gold medals so far, but if I put myself under pressure and think I have got to win three gold medals to keep everyone else happy, then I probably won't make it to London, I will probably be a nervous wreck."
