Placing myself in service
I was a shy kid, which wasn’t helped by the fact I’d moved home and school six times before the age of 11 because my father [an Anglican minister] took up different curacies. Public speaking was a particular fear, which is ironic, given that I do a lot of it now. You certainly wouldn’t have recognised the potential Olympian in me. Yet it was the discovery of my athletic ability that allowed me to flourish. Looking back, I wonder how the boy I was ended up doing all that he did. I think the answer is that my dad was a great believer in my talent, sometimes contrary to the physical evidence, and believed it to be God-given. I felt the responsibility to use it to the best of my ability.

Receiving an unexpected gift
Though I didn’t concentrate fully on athletics until after university [Edwards read physics at Durham], I remember how empowering it was as an adolescent to find I was good at something physical. Being very swotty, sport was my saviour socially. An aptitude for it gave you credibility and saw you accepted by the right crowd. I went back to West Buckland School just a few weeks ago to open a new sports centre, named in my honour. And it was great to meet up again with my old PE teacher Laurence Whittal-Williams, who looks exactly the same as he always did, and has less grey hair than me.

Fulfilling my God-given talent
My everyday life was transformed in 1995 [he won gold at the Gothenburg World Championships]. Until that point I had no idea how good I could be. It’s possible I’d have got to the same level through my own inner drive, but unlikely. I was neither single-minded nor ruthless enough. It was the belief I should pursue excellence in association with my faith that gave me the confidence necessary to achieve success: I was doing things for God’s glory rather than my own. And when I achieved my goal [his competitive career was capped by a gold medal performance at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney], that and the fact I was already a married guy with a young family, helped to keep my feet on the ground.

Asking some fundamental questions
Retiring from athletics gave me the time and freedom to question my faith. And suddenly I found the answers to questions as basic as, “Is there a God?” no longer made the sense they had before. Coming from a scientific background, that in itself wasn’t especially traumatic; I was able to analyse, accept and move on. But of course the whole situation was made more difficult by the fact I was a relatively high-profile Christian and at the time was presenting Songs of Praise on television. I couldn’t be dishonest, though. I had to stay true to myself.

Always rising to the occasion
I’m not an active thrill-seeker. I snowboard, but I’m not one of those extreme sports nuts who’ll happily risk a broken arm or leg in pursuit of the latest experience. But I do like doing a job well and we all need a challenge in life, which is why you’ll find me out at sea on August 1 [Edwards is one of the celebrity team-members taking part in the Volkswagen Touareg King of Cowes Race]. I know I’ll be hideously nervous and that I’ll wish to be anywhere else but there. But then I always struggled with fear on the big day and it never stopped me jumping well. Fingers crossed the same will still hold true.

For more info, visit www.volkswagen.co.uk/touareg and www.kingofcowes.com