One year on, that sailor, Luke Patience, admits he is still getting goosebumps just thinking about summer 2012, he said: "It's surreal looking back.

"It totally brings back goosebumps when I think about the whole Olympic experience, and ultimately I'm a sucker for the Olympics.

"It's brought me goosebumps all my life when I was never even there.

"I watched the BBC DVDs that we got sent about it all. I've watched our race a couple of times before, feeling a bit nostalgic." "For us personally, for what we felt during the Olympics it will never be like that again but the vibe still around the Olympics is amazing.

"To have that amount of people supporting us throughout the Games was not even on our radar." Last summer turned the Rhu sailor from Luke Patience, to Luke Patience, Olympic games silver medalist.

With that change has come increased fame, media coverage, support and pressure and he admits the games and subsequent changes have had a huge effect on him as a person as well as as an athlete, he continued: "I feel like I've grown up a lot since the games - I feel like I went into the Olympics a certain guy and came out a completely different guy, just after one week.

"It's changed me for the better, and certainly for the better in my sport." From Patience winning silver in the water to Chris Hoy winning gold on his bike, to Mo Farah's exploits on the track and Andy Murray taking the tennis title, the country were left with a wide range of highlights, but the sailor from Rhu admits his favourite moment came before the action even started, as he stood with some of his closest friends in the Olympic Stadium.

Patience continued: "My personal Games moment came at the Opening Ceremony - we were lucky enough to actually get to go to London.

"We finally got to the stadium and were walking in a line - me, Stuart, Hannah and Saskia.

"It was that moment stood in the tunnel when the next team being announced was Team GB, and then 80,000 people in the stands knew we were coming.

"They started banging their feet in the stands where they were sat and the place was shaking, everyone was chanting.

"I remember looking at Stuart and Hannah and seeing their faces and the expressions they had knowing that I would've looked the same.

"The three of us all grew up together and I think all our years racing with each other and against each other came to that moment.

"For me, that moment is so vivid.

"Then we were released and that moment - when we walked out into the stadium - it defined everything that the Olympics meant to me and at that moment, win or lose, I was thinking 'I'm here and I've got it right - what an opportunity to be my best and try and win an Olympic gold medal'.

"Whatever I go on to do, I think that moment will be the most vivid, impactful moment of my entire sporting life." Patience may have then gone on to do his country proud by earning an Olympic silver medal but after missing out on gold, the 27-year-old is determined to push on, further his sailing career and win that gold at the Rio games, he said: "I have mixed emotions thinking back. For the most part and the largest part I'm so proud. "Me and Stuart just killed the Olympic regatta really - a personal best, a career best even, and that's all you can ask of yourself.

"I look back and all the amazing things that came of it and I think 'wow'.

"We just couldn't have asked more of ourselves, but yet it just wasn't quite enough - and that's the bit that stings. "It's something that drives me every day, knowing that we didn't win and that's why we all do it - that's why every elite sportsman does what they do. "That small bit of negativity, if that's what you can call it, I've turned into drive and inspiration to push even harder." Patience is hoping to use that drive and inspiration to push him to the top of the podium in Rio in 2016 - pick up next week's Advertiser for part two of our Luke Patience special as he looks forward to the 2016 Olympics.