Even in rowing, where big men abound, Lieutenant Pete Reed stands out. The Royal Navy officer is 6ft 7in and has a huge lung capacity that has astonished his sport. He is also an engineer and brings his professional skills to rowing.

“It is a technical sport,” he says. “It’s all about levers and fluid dynamics - I wrote my BEng dissertation on the mechanics of rowing.”

The combination of physical strength, a punishing training regimen and intellectual insight certainly seems to get results: Reed was a pivotal member of the coxless four that sprinted to gold in one of the most dramatic finishes of the Beijing Olympics.

But it was the engineering that came first, instilled by his father. “My dad was an engineer who worked for Rolls-Royce for 40 years. He was always fixing things like the dryer and the washing machine, and I grew up making things first with Lego and then Meccano,” Reed recalls. He did not rate himself as a sportsman: “As a kid I tried every sport and was mediocre at them all.”

Olympic rower’s training as a marine engineer helped him to win a gold medal in Beijing

A combination of physical strength, a punishing training regimen and intellectual insight certainly reaps results

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After A levels in maths, physics, art and psychology, Reed joined the Royal Navy as a trainee marine engineering officer, learning how to operate and maintain the complex mechanical, electrical and electronic systems that keep a modern warship ready for battle. It is the ultimate engineering challenge, requiring intimate knowledge of everything from engine control computers to sewage discharge valves, as well as requiring the leadership skills to control crews of naval ratings.

“It was very good experience from an early age - at 18 you get a lot of responsibility - and I got the opportunity to go to university,” he says.

It was in the Navy that he first discovered his rowing talent.

There was a fleet-wide contest for rowing machines, known as ergos, a device he had never tried. The first time he sat in one he produced a winning time.

He studied at the University of the West Country in Bath, going out in a racing eight for the first time in Bristol dock with the university boat club.

His rowing and engineering careers progressed in parallel. He went to Oxford to take a masters degree and rowed in two Boat Races. Defeat in 2004 was followed by victory in 2005 as part of the heaviest crew ever.

The next four years will be dominated by preparations for the London Olympics, so to allow his career to advance at the same time Reed has applied to move sideways into training.

“My unique skills as an elite athlete will be really useful in helping to make the service a modern service,” he says.

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