A FORMER Olympic rower says he has been brought back from the brink by a Henley gym.

Alex Partridge, 43, won two Olympic medals with the Team GB eight, a silver in 2008 in Beijing and a bronze at London 2012. He also won three world championship gold medals.

However, he struggled to find structure in his life after the regimented lifestyle of an elite athlete and his mental health suffered.

He also let his physical health go and reached a low point when he was prosecuted for drink-driving.

Now he says his life has been transformed by regaining his fitness at the F45 gym in Market Place Mews.

Partridge, who lives in Henley, said: “I lost 20kg in about three months and I feel strong and healthy again. It’s the first time since 2012 that I have felt in really good shape.”

He started rowing at Monkton Combe School in Bath and then went to Oxford Brookes University to study technology management.

Double Olympic champion Steve Williams, with whom he won two world titles, attended both the same school and university.

Partridge first made his mark at senior level in 2001 and three years later won the GB trials in the pair with Andrew Triggs Hodge.

He was selected for the four with Williams, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell but after the World Cup in Lucerne, he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and he had to withdraw from the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Partridge was replaced in the coxless four by Ed Coode and the crew went on to win the Olympic final beating the Canadian crew by just 0.08 seconds.

But it was Partridge, however, who was first across the line. The crew had named their boat after him.

The following year he was back to full fitness and regained his place in the men’s four with Triggs Hodge, Williams and now Pete Reed, winning gold in the World Cups at Dorney Lake, Munich and Lucerne and taking gold in the World Championships in Japan.

There was further success in 2006 with gold in all of the World Cup events in Munich, Pozna and Lucerne and another World Championship victory at Dorney Lake.

But the next season proved to be disappointing, finishing fourth at the World Championships with the crew having struggled with injuries. Then, in 2008, Partridge was moved to the eight and won silver in the Beijing Olympics.

He returned to the four in 2009 and won gold at the World Championships in Pozna with Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory and Ric Egington and then silver in the eight in the 2011 championships.

At the London Games in 2012 Partridge won bronze in the eight only for his medal to be stolen while in a London nightclub. He did later receive a replacement and decided to hang up his oars, which brought fresh challenges.

He said: “I started eating poorly, drinking too much and generally not living the best life of an ex-Olympian.

“Elite athletes struggle when they leave their sport. I was at my peak when I finished rowing, in top physical strength and I found myself always trying to chase that. It was a real struggle because my identity was so wrapped up in winning.

“It was a difficult time. I was part of the British rowing team for 20 years. To leave it is hard – I was based in Caversham and would keep going there for years but then you realise that it has gone and the British rowing team carries on without you and that’s tough.

“British Rowing at that time had not quite worked out the mechanism of support. They put so much into delivering results that they forgot about after-care of the athletes. The real world is a very different place to the world of an elite athlete.”

Then, in 2016, Partridge hit a new low when he was banned from the road for a year after admitting drink-driving. He was stopped by police after overtaking officers in a black Audi A4 in Hammersmith.

Partridge realised he had to change his life but needed help and admits in the years after rowing he had put on a “huge” amount of weight and lost most of his strength. It had been 12 years since he had stepped into a gym but then he bumped into a trainer at F45 gym in Henley outside Waitrose.

He said: “I was walking to Waitrose through Market Place and met one of their trainers and we had a chat about the gym and I agreed to try it. I had not done any real exercise for three years and not gone into a gym in 12 years. I was scared and intimidated, I was so unfit but, when I got in there, I got that buzz from the endorphins of doing exercise.

“So much of what we are doing in society is unhealthy and evolves around going out for a drink while going to a place like F45 is so much better for you. It’s an environment where you get used to asking for help, because with exercise you ask for help when you are working out. It’s a great support mechanism for your life.

“Now I am strong again, I am eating better and I have structure to my day. It has truly been transformational. I have built my confidence far above and beyond the workouts. It’s the social element of F45 which has helped me to rebuild this confidence. I’ve made new friends and I feel accountable to my community and coaches. Being a member has helped me come out of the dark hole I was once buried in. I lost 20kg in about three months and I feel strong and healthy again.

“To show up to the gym you feel like you are part of a team again. Everything is so positive there. It’s the chats afterwards, it’s the WhatsApp messages. The after-support — it’s not just about losing 20kg.

“It’s the first time since 2012 I feel in really good shape again, when I used to do marathons and open water swimming. I never wanted to go back into the gym but this has changed my position. I’m now functionally fit to be able to do what I want to do.”

Partridge said being part of the gym has also had a positive impact on his family. He said: “My kids come and watch the classes and they are getting inspired to do the same in their lives. That’s the best thing you can do as a parent.

“My kids missed most of my rowing career but this way they can see my working hard and think I can do something better.”

“He has also transformed his body composition, he has dropped a substantial amount of weight and his body fat score has dropped significantly, which is phenomenal.

“His strength overall is excellent and his mental state coming into these sessions and being part of this community has really helped him. Especially after being an athlete, coming here and training gives you purpose.

“He has also helped people here with rowing and given us technique work, which had been really supportive.”

Trainer Jordyn Samu added: “Alex always goes hell for leather in everything he does. He comes four to five times a week and loves the rowing machine.”