Katherine Grainger interview: Carrying the flag . . .

The problem for Grainger, of course, is that she now has what she has always wanted. It is not the best place for the driven athlete to be but Grainger's bright look belies any sense that she now lacks focus and her words are measured and credible on life after the greatest goal has been achieved.

One week after Grainger and her team-mate Anna Watkins won the double sculls at Eton Dorney, the Scottish rower can say: "I feel very content, to be honest. It was the big thing missing and it is now here and it has also exceeded everything I hoped it could be.

"I've known people who have won before and said it was almost an anti-climax. This is in no way an anti-climax. Anna and I were down at the river yesterday and both of us were like 'oh, let's get a boat' because it's where we both feel so comfortable.

"It has been very strange almost leaving that life immediately. We go from that Olympic final which has been your life for years to suddenly the moment it finishes you don't go near a boat or talk about rowing. It feels like a different life has started at this point, but the most overwhelming feeling is satisfaction and pride."

And when will she go back in a boat? "I have absolutely no idea," she says.

There is a sense of dislocation about Grainger's life that is shown by her meetings with various personalities over the past week. She has chatted with Prince Harry at the velodrome, she has inadvertently missed a call from David Beckham, Sir Steve Redgrave has been passing on congratulations, and yesterday she was promoting Scotland as the home of golf at a function in Pall Mall.

The gold medal has opened up Grainger to fame. It will be intriguing to see what she does with it.

At 36, another Olympics is not an outlandish possibility. Grainger and Watkins will chat and consult and reach a decision. If Grainger decides that the Olympic road is at an end then the road less travelled becomes an exciting, adventurous route. This has something to do with Grainger's intelligence, drive and personality. It also has much to do with her story.

It was revealing that the gold medallist detailed the most fascinating meetings of her week. These were not the pleasant chats with royalty but the encounters with spectators as she walked through the Olympic Park.

"Genuinely, meeting complete strangers is the thing that has thrown me far more than anything else. I have never been recognised before, I have never been stopped by anyone who has known who I was. It is happening a lot now and everyone who does is just so warm and wanting to give me hugs. They watched it, they maybe cried.

"That reaction from the stranger in the street means far more in a way than anything else. The impact of what me and Anna did, well we just couldn't have contemplated that, inspiring people who have not been along the agonising journey that we and our friends and family have. That has been really quite humbling."

She is very aware of what she has touched in the wider public. "The normal person in the street probably understands my story to some extent. It is not just win, win, win . . . they know it has been an emotional journey, ups and downs, and great success and huge moments of despair at times. I think that is why people were so pleased to see it and share it with me. They just knew how much it would mean."

Grainger, then, has both the attractive personality and a popular message of triumph after despair. She is a supreme athlete, an intellectual who has studied law at Edinburgh University, gained a Masters in Philosophy in medical law and medical ethics from Glasgow University and is now studying for a PhD from King's College, London, where her subject is homicide.

The glib response is that she could now make a killing in financial terms. "I would never do something for the money," she says. "I wouldn't have gone into rowing if I wanted to do it for the money. People have said you'll never replace what you do in sport. You just look for something else that you love and can be passionate about. I've never had to think like that before because I was always doing this."

She may be thinking about it soon. Grainger will certainly be approached by commercial interests and may even be courted by political ones. She was appointed one of the five athlete ambassadors before the Games and it is obvious that she is comfortable in the surroundings of Scotland House.

The rower, too, gives her views with a quiet strength on matters that concern her. There is a growing fear that the hope and glory of London 2012 will dissipate quickly with no legacy for health or sport, but Grainger resists this message of doom.

"One of the best things about the Olympics is that it showcases so many sports," she says. "I'm a big fan of football. It's great that it's a sport for all and everybody can kick a football around. But to see kids who can watch sports from diving to fencing to high jump on the TV, especially with the success in British sport, they are getting access to sports they didn't know existed."

She addresses this to her home nation: "The hardest thing for Scotland is that it still has a reputation for being unhealthy in so many ways, so if this can have an impact on people of all ages in trying different things and having a go, it's got to be a good thing.

"Football will always be the national sport but I would like to see other sport covered more. What would be great in football itself would be for it to have a positive reputation. Loads of kids have pictures of football players on their walls and they should live up to the responsibility of being role models."

This is said without venom but the point is made. So could Grainger be the person that carries that message for her nation? "It's flattering," said Grainger. "I wouldn't want to walk away from sport. It's where my biggest knowledge base is. The fact you can inspire people and motivate people is amazing. I really do enjoy it."

She is not applying for anything but that should not stop her being recruited.