Introducing the Guardian's Olympic diarists Sarah Stevenson Great Britain Born 30 March 1983, Doncaster Taekwondo Welterweight Sarah Stevenson is welterweight world champion and favourite for Olympic gold. She became Britain's first Olympic medallist in the sport at Beijing in 2008, winning bronze Last year both her parents died from cancer After all the fuss about the absence of women on the list of nominees for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, I spent the night of the ceremony at home. It wasn't a snub - I needed the time to ring around making the final arrangements for a surprise 30th birthday party I'd organised for my husband. It was something nice for us to enjoy after a horrible year in which I lost both my parents to cancer. I didn't really think about Christmas in the run-up because I would have been upset, so I was trying to minimise the days of sorrow, I suppose. It got hard around Christmas Eve but my family came around to what was my parents' house and we all had dinner together, so I wasn't on my own. When I was interviewed by the Guardian late last year, I mentioned that some people found it difficult to talk to me after my parents died but I think the passing of a little time has helped. I got the impression some people thought there was nothing they could say that would make any difference but not saying anything to a person who's grieving is probably the worst thing you can do. I don't hold that against anybody because it's not their fault; they just don't know what to do. I kind of accept that some people don't know what to say to somebody who's suddenly lost their parents in such a short space of time, so it doesn't really get to me as much now. I've been back in training since the beginning of December and it's been pretty full-on - the last two weeks before Christmas were absolutely horrendous but I enjoyed it because it was really tough. I was aching everywhere and it just felt good to be back working hard and feeling sore and bruised like that again. We concentrate on volume in training at this time: two or more hours of taekwondo in the morning and then hard fitness or weights in the afternoon, to get strong and fit. It's very intense. I was delighted to become Sarah Stevenson MBE in the New Year's honours; I hope my parents can see me now because I know they'd be incredibly proud. I'm really glad now we're in the new year because it's a mental kickstart to help me put the last one behind me. I'll have plenty of time to train for London 2012; I won the worlds last year without much preparation, so I just have to hope that nothing else comes up to distract me. I know my mum and dad want me to go for the Olympics - to do my best to try to win gold. Find out more at www.sarahstevenson.net Jonathan Brownlee Great Britain Born 30 April 1990, Leeds Triathlon Jonathan Brownlee is the world No2 in triathlon and finished second in last year's world championship series behind his older brother Alistair. He was Under-23 world champion in 2010 7 August 2012, Hyde Park, London. That's the date and venue of the men's triathlon in this year's Olympics - and the moment where, if all goes to plan, I hit my peak, come home in the top three and end up with a shiny medal around my neck. I don't think that's an unrealistic target: after all, I made the podium in all my races last year but beating Alistair, who is the current world champion, won't be easy. People often ask me how I get on with my brother. The answer is great - we have different personalities and you'll rarely catch him joining me in online Call of Duty or Fifa 12 sessions after training - but he's always there to drag me out if the weather is grotty, or vice versa, and you couldn't ask for a better training partner. We were both out on Christmas Day for a one-hour run before I tucked into a Terry's chocolate orange for breakfast. It was Christmas after all, and Christmas is all about eating, isn't it? Not that it affected my performance: on Boxing Day I won the seven-mile Chevin Chase race in Guiseley, by nearly two minutes from my nearest rival. That said, I have eased down slightly over the past fortnight, although that was a planned - and slightly enforced - rest as the swimming pools were often closed and the weather was pretty grim. However, there's no point in going flat-out all the time as you'll just burn out and increase the chances of injury. My coach, Malcolm Brown, has already mapped out my schedule for 2012: I'll be training pretty easily until February, working on technique and building aerobic capacity, as well as running a few cross-country races, before the triathlon season starts in April. I'm down to compete in ITU World Triathlon Series events in San Diego and Madrid in May, and then Kitzbühel in June, before I enter an intense training camp in St Moritz to get myself spot-on for the Olympics. And then it's all down to how I perform on the day. Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the UK and people tell me that, if Alistair and I do well, at London 2012 it will become even more popular. That's possibly true, although there's enough to think about already without that burden of carrying the sport on my shoulders!. But I can't wait for the Games to come round. Competing in your home Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - and it's one I plan to take. Jonathan Brownlee is a BT ambassador. BT is the official communications services partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Visit www.bt.com/london2012 Ellen Gandy Great Britain Born 15 Aug 1991, Bromley Swimming Butterfly Ellen Gandy is a British 200m butterfly swimmer who lives in Melbourne. She competed at Beijing in 2008 and won silver in the world championships last year, missing out on gold by 0.04sec My family moved from England to Australia back in 2007 and Christmas has always been a funny time of year for us since. The first year we had a barbecue and it was awful. It just felt like Christmas had completely passed us by. So from then on my mum has always made a point of cooking a proper Christmas dinner, with turkey, potatoes, gravy and everything. So no matter how hot it is, and this year it was 30°C in Melbourne, we all sit down to a full English roast. I've got used to the way Australians do things by now. I could never say that it is better than being in England but I do love it here. Especially when my team-mates back in Bath tell me about how harsh the winter is in the UK. One of the real treats about training in the Australian summer is that we get to use open pools. I do a lot of sea swimming too, in competitions up and down the coast. But funnily enough I'm not very good at it because it is so different from swimming in a pool - you can't see the bottom and you're stuck in a crowd of people. I usually end up swimming in totally the wrong direction. One of the biggest differences between Britain and Australia is that the public really love swimming over here and we really get a lot of support. I was 16 when we moved and had already been in a few national youth teams. That is why I have always wanted to swim for Britain, because I had already made so many friends there and feel really strongly about being British. Michael Scott, the British performance director, is from Melbourne, so he always touches base when he is over here and tells me about everything, so we don't feel too far away from it all. Some of my friends out here do tease me and tell me I should turn full Aussie. But most of them just tell me: 'Oh, it's OK, you'll be the only Pom that we cheer for in 2012.' Every time I come back to England people say I have an Australian twang in my accent, so my new year's resolution is going to be to try and get rid of that before I come back home for the Olympic trials. More seriously I'm going to be working on my start and my turns. In the world championships last July I missed gold in the 200m butterfly by 0.04 of a second. When you are that close you have to look at the tiny things and make them all perfect. And my turn in that race was so awful I can't even bear to watch the video of it. But now I think that winning silver was even better than me winning gold would have been, because it has given me a lot more hunger for 2012. Ellen Gandy is a member of the British Gas GBR Swimming Team. British Swimming's principal partner British Gas supports the sport at every level. For more information visit http://www.britishgas.co.uk/swimming Jermaine Gonzales Jamaica Born 26 Nov 1984, Jamaica Athletics 400m, 4x400m Jermaine Gonzales is a 400m runner from Jamaica who trains alongside Usain Bolt. He expects to compete in the 400m and 4x400m in London Over Christmas I was busy counting my blessings. This time last year I was recovering from surgery on knee ligaments, so right now I'm happy just to be able to run. It is every athlete's worst nightmare that an injury like that will happen in an Olympic year but I try not to think that way. After the surgery I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make the world championships in September. In the end I did go and I finished fourth in the 400m and took a bronze in the 4x400m - not bad given the injury meant I had no background training to rely on. But in 2012 I expect better and not just because I'm hoping to persuade Usain Bolt to run with us in the 4x400m. Usain and I are good friends, we do a lot of our training together, so I know he could do the 400m with his eyes closed if he wanted to. He says that he'll do it if the rest of the squad is good enough to compete for the gold, so hopefully a couple of the other 400m guys can step up their performances and encourage him some more. We have a fine group of talented quarter-milers coming through and as long as they are focused and willing to work I don't see a Jamaican 4x400m team finishing out of the top two in London. Usain and I are at the Racers Track club. It is an amazing squad to be a part of because there are so many youngsters coming up who are all competing to get to the top - just like Yohan Blake has done with Usain. People imagine that Usain isn't a hard trainer. He can be a bit inconsistent and miss the odd day here and there but he doesn't know how to run slow. His coach tells him to run six sets of 300m in 38sec, with five minute rests, and he'll go out and run them all in 36sec. Try training with him and tell me he doesn't work hard. You feel like there is always somebody there nipping at your heels and trying to take your spot. With people like Kirani James, Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt all going for gold in the 400m, I know I have to push harder than ever to get in the medals. So I took only two days off this Christmas and spent them both with my family. Right now I am working on endurance stuff, running 600m, 800m, with short recovery breaks in between. And I am also doing a lot of gym work to strengthen my knee. I won't be making any new year's resolutions. I am just going to keep faith in myself, you know. 'Keep faith and don't lose focus' - that's what I am telling myself. I believe in myself and I believe in my coach. For me, in 2012 the sky is the limit. Nicola Adams Great Britain Born 26 Oct 1982, Leeds Boxing Flyweight Nicola Adams should be one of Britain's best medal hopes when women's boxing makes its Olympic debut in London. In 2001 she became the first female boxer to represent England; since then she has won two world championship silver medals and is the current European and European union champion I've had some good achievements this year - gold in the European unions and in the European championships. Because of my success at the latter I got the ranking points that will help me in the qualifiers for the London 2012 Olympics.I can finally say I'm European champion and it's a nice feeling. To win the gold I beat a French woman, Sarah Ourahmoune, who I boxed in the European unions earlier in the year in the quarter-final so I knew what she was all about. She came with her A-game as it was the major tournament of the year but I beat her 15-8 so I got nearly as twice as many points as her. I first started fighting because my mum used to do aerobics at the gym in Leeds and there was an after-school boxing class. She took me to that when I was 12 - all my friends were there from school, I enjoyed it very much and I had my first fight at 13. I've never had a broken nose or anything like that. I'm too quick. I haven't yet secured my place in the Great Britain team for London 2012. We get three berths but we have to qualify at the world championships in Chongqing in China in May - it's the same system as the men's: we have to reach the quarter-finals. If I qualify for the Olympics I will be on cloud nine all the way to the Games. It's going to be absolutely amazing. My main rivals are Ren Can Can of China, the No1 who beat me in the world championship last year, and the Australian Shannon O'Connell, who will trade ranking places with me when they are issued next by dropping to third. Priorities for 2012? Trying to stay fit and get in as many matches as possible to keep me sharp, as all my focus is on the qualifiers. In January we have a match against Sweden, then on the 29th a training camp in Brazil for two weeks. Why Brazil? Because they have some really good girls there and it will be good sparring and good preparation. The last time I boxed was at the Europeans [in October] and on 16 December we had our final day at our base in Sheffield at the English Institute of Sport, so I got two weeks off over Christmas. We have a 5% weight allowance and as long as we are inside that then everything's fine, so I was able to enjoy a bit of turkey this year. But I was expected to train at my local gym in Leeds before we go back on 3 January when it all kicks off again. At London I am going for gold: I always want the best colour, I always try not to settle for less. I think it's that kind of determination that drives me on and gets me to where I want to be. Hannah Cockroft Great Britain Born 30 July 1992, Halifax Paralympics T34 Hannah Cockroft is a wheelchair athlete specialising in sprint distances. She won gold in 100m and 200m at last year's world championships The next six months are going to go by in a flash. It's going to be scary how quick they'll go. My next-door neighbour is only seven, he'll be there in London to watch me race and every day when he comes out of school he tells me how many weeks there are until I race at the Games. It's getting closer and closer and I sort of wish he'd stop. I'm excited about everything to do with 2012, except for the actual race. I'm very, very scared about that. It's a massive opportunity but it's also the biggest race I've ever done. It's my first Paralympic Games, it's my home Games and I'll never have experienced anything like it. I'm going into it as a double world champion, so it means I'm going into it with a lot of expectation on me. I don't want to go into it and let people down. I know I can only do the best I can do and that people will accept that, but at the same time, if I don't get a gold, I'll feel that something has gone seriously wrong. I'll never have raced in front of that many people before. Even at the world championships the stands were only half full. Just imagine it - that many people, the whole country watching you, the whole world watching you. It is exciting but I'm apprehensive. I might be on the start line crying. On the other hand, I love the spotlight. Maybe the pressure will make me push better. I often push better if I'm angry or upset, so if I'm scared that might push me on in the same way. So the only new year's resolution I can make is to keep working hard and get those two golds at London 2012. That's the aim of the entire year so, if I can do that, I'll be happy. Normally I just make the old boring ones like: make sure you're on time for things (I always break that one straight away), stop eating crap food, do my training properly. Although I always wake up on New Year's Day and think: 'No, I'm not training today.' But the past four years have all been centred around this one year. It's the biggest year of my life, I don't want to let it go by without doing the best that I can do. Hannah Cockroft is a BT ambassador. Zac Purchase Great Britain Born 2 May 1986 Rowing Lightweight double sculls Zac and his sculls partner Mark Hunter won Olympic gold in Beijing and are favourites to win again this year. They have dominated their discipline since teaming up in 2007 and have won the last two world championships My new year's resolution for 2012 is precisely the same one I made at the start of 2008: to win an Olympic gold medal. Back in Beijing in 2008, Mark and I won gold in the lightweight double sculls and we are determined to win gold again, this time on home water. So while the Christmas period has been a bit more indulgent than other times during the year, it has not distracted from my aspiration of winning a second gold medal. Mark and I have worked hard to prepare for the London games and we are determined to build upon the fantastic result from last year's world championships in Bled, in which we took an exhilarating title. It was the third time that I have been crowned world champion and the feeling gets better and better. I don't feel any particular pressure with this year's Olympics being at home but the added support while racing on home water will be immensely satisfying and, with my fiancée Fliss and me getting married after the Games, I already know that 2012 is going to be a special year. As a nation we have a good track record in rowing and that is something I am proud to be a part of but it comes down to good old-fashioned hard graft and training which we undertake on a daily basis. It is no different at Christmas but I did manage to get some respite from the rigours of training. Nothing could convince me to train on Christmas Day itself; I think that is just a clever ruse to worry the opposition about how much training you're doing. Instead we spent it at home in south Oxfordshire. It was a very lazy day with a festive feast at Luscombe's Golden Ball in Henley. We then spent a few days in Plymouth with my mum (yes, I squeezed in some training) before heading to Worcester to visit my soon-to-be mother-in-law for another Christmas roast. We added a spot of impromptu training with a lengthy walk on the Malvern Hills with the dogs. In the run-up to the new year, we went to Nottingham to see Fliss's dad. We added a bit of ice skating to the unplanned training regime, although I must admit I am not as comfortable on frozen water as I am in a boat. Fliss showed me up and tried to coax me away from the walls but I'm not sure 'Dancing on Ice' would have me. I'd be much better suited to 'Strictly' anyway and would gladly take to the floor. I do enjoy a few luxuries at Christmas, whether homemade mince pies or a drop of red wine, but training is always there to negate the indulgence. In between the festive treats I keep up work on the ergo as well as a few weights and many of the other top-secret elements of our training schedule. Inevitably we will have a few cobwebs to dust off but we are back to reality quickly with a training camp that lasts for much of January. After all, there is one golden target for 2012 and we will work our Christmas socks off for it. Follow Zac on Twitter at @ZacPurchase Bobby White Great Britain Born 5 April 1983, Northampton Handball Goalkeeper Bobby White was a semi-professional football goalkeeper when he signed up for the Sporting Giants programme and began playing handball in January 2008. He currently plays in France It seems so long ago that we started out on this journey and for 2012 finally to be here makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. It's really hit home. All the Great Britain training camps are pencilled in we're just waiting for the final camp in April to be confirmed in terms of where we're going to be playing and who we're going to be playing against, but we've got an intense winter period to look forward to as the GB team. Then the final preparations for the Games start in May. The French season finishes on 17 May, so I've got plenty of handball to play all the way up to the Games themselves. My current club, Valence, are a third division side but the standard is high, even if ideally I'd like to be playing higher. I waited to see if I could go back to my club in Greece, where I was last season, but they went bankrupt and couldn't afford to bring any foreign players back in thanks to the financial crisis. So I looked at Denmark for opportunities but I've been around the block there, - I'd already made a name for myself so to be getting offers from second and third division teams wasn't enough. I felt I deserved to be a bit higher. So I thought I'd come to France to see what I can do here. When I first arrived I was on my own but now my Great Britain team-mate Sebastian Prieto has joined me. We're on the top floor of an apartment block which is basically a bit like Nelson Mandela House in Only Fools and Horses and it's in a bit of a run-down area but we're fairly well looked after by the club. They're paying for the place so it's not a bad set-up really. I can't speak much French but I'm teaching myself. Sebastian is half French and he's fluent so he's a good man to have around to help translate. People around here don't speak much English (especially when they don't want to). As for targets this year, one of the big things that often gets spoken about but not really taken seriously is legacy. I hope in December we can look back and say that we achieved what we set out to - we're aiming for a top-eight finish - but also that the legacy starts to take shape, with handball really taking off in the country. Hopefully with the exposure we'll get people will see what a great game it is and there'll be a demand for it, a demand for more clubs, more opportunities in schools. So 2012 is the end of something but also the beginning of something else. It ends one chapter but, if everything goes to plan, it'll also begin another. Find out more at bobbywhitehandball.com Please post your comments and questions below. We will make sure our diarists answer the best of them in their next columns