I'm learning in my own sort of quiet, out-of-the-spotlight kind of way. I certainly have my general point of view about the government, and the future of our children. I'm certainly learning all the time, I'm happy to be an onlooker for now.

I made my first Australian senior team when I was 16, first Olympics when I was 19, and I retired. I'm 32, I retired four years ago, so a good third of my life or nearly a third of my life has been all about running.

I decided that I was going to go to the Olympics to see if I had made the right decision to retire because I knew that if I'd made the mistake of retiring I would know during and after those Games in Athens.

The last sort of really low-key race I ran, I realized with about a hundred metres to go, that my heart just wasn't in it. I wasn't trying my hardest, I didn't care to compete against the girls I was up against. That spoke a lot about where my heart was taking me-which was off the track.

I made publicity contracts with Nike, several broadcasting companies and airline companies within Australia.

When I was 18 years old, about to develop my sportsman career, the asthma complaints became already some years before.

Asthma is treatable and well can be controlled.