Frances Houghton wraps up her Olympic Experiences

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Fran is writing on the BBC Blogs page and summarises how she feels as time passes about the Silver Medal she won with the W4x.

Gradually putting silver in perspective

The dust has been settling over the past few days and although I dont think our disappointment at not winning the gold will ever go away, I am beginning to put things into more perspective day by day.

We actually had a great race and I honestly don't know what we could have done to go faster.

If I had my day again I wouldn't change what we did; physically and tactically we put together the best race we ever have; we went as fast as we possibly could on the day. And as an athlete this is the most I have ever asked of myself.

Earlier in the week before the race we took a pack of cards and wrote a strength on each one – experience, desire to win, our faith and trust in each other and in everyone that was supporting us.

In the race it felt like we laid down every single one of those cards and delivered every strength we had. Unfortunately for us the Chinese had just one more joker left at the end.

It has been such a great journey to be a part of this crew and one that I will look back on with a lot of pride and many great memories.

If someone had said five years ago that by August 2008 I would be three-times world champion and double Olympic silver medallist I wouldn't have believed them, but I would have taken it with both hands.

To be at my third Olympics is just absolutely incredible and to win a second silver medal might be hugely frustrating but it is still absolutely awesome too.

There are so many people that helped us become the crew that we were and we are so grateful to all of them.

Coaches, psychologists, physiotherapists, everyone has given up so much time to our goal and lived our journey with us through all the ups and downs with all their hearts and souls.

I am just so sorry that this did not have the ending we all hoped for.

Thank you everyone so much for all your support.

We are now all doing our best to enjoy the rest of the Games, and to cheer the rest of Team GB on as loudly as we possibly can!

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