Oars well that ends well?

In an age where sportsmen spit at fellow professionals, rake their studs down opponents' calves, gouge, swear and unload all ends of heat-of-the-moment damnation on one another, Pinsent has been a breath of fresh air.

Today, in Henley, he will make an announcement concerning his future. He will retire, say many.

You would have to go a long way to find an athlete whose words are quite so considered, so eloquent, as the 34-year-old, a product no doubt of his Eton education.

It came as little surprise, having been peppered with the question all summer, that he asked for time to weigh up his future plans after he, James Cracknell, Ed Goode and Steve Williams pipped Canada to Athens gold.

It was not the time for snap decisions, even if former team-mate Sir Steve Redgrave was urging Pinsent to commit himself to Beijing 2008.

Redgrave even suggested Pinsent could row on at international level until 2012. It must have been unwelcome pressure.

Instead, Pinsent wept, on the banks of the river at the Schinias rowing centre, on the makeshift pontoon which was doubling up as a medal podium, and probably long into the night.

This was the summer when the focus fell on Pinsent, the public-appointed leader of the men's four team. He went to Athens as surely Britain's best hope of gold, apart from Paula Radcliffe of course, who was the nailed-on cert.

Unlike Radcliffe, Pinsent's crew did not disappoint, even if it required a photo-finish to settle the result.

Pinsent was immediately pressed on whether he would pursue a fifth gold, particularly given that Redgrave had backed him to compete into his forties.

''Steve's been a big part of my career and my life but whether I talk to him about retirement I don't know,'' reflected Pinsent.

With coach Jurgen Grobler, Pinsent has pontificated on the issue of whether this might be the right time to step away from rowing.

Wife Dee had pressed Pinsent to go to Athens, and if doubt ever entered his mind, it was she who made him go the extra mile.

Now though, with Grobler demanding confirmation of Pinsent's plans as he looks towards the 2005 season, Pinsent has made a decision.

It could yet go either way, but the instinct is to suggest his time is up.

The 14-year-old Pinsent took up rowing at Eton, and within three years he and Tim Foster had claimed gold in the coxless pairs at the World Junior Championships.

That achievement coincided with Redgrave capturing his second Olympic gold in Seoul, and yet their careers were on collision course. The upstart and the all-conquering champion.

They were united just two years later, when the prodigious Pinsent was handed a late call to compete in the World Championships, although the colour of medal that summer was bronze.

That same year, 1990, Pinsent helped Oxford to victory in the Boat Race.

The gold rush began in 1991, Pinsent and Redgrave joining forces for their first world title in the coxless pairs, and the Olympic title in Barcelona followed.

The first of three consecutive world titles and an MBE followed in 1993, while the same Pinsent-Redgrave combination reigned on the river in Atlanta in 1996.

As a team they were dynamite, their mutual respect self-evident.

Pinsent was destined to be the junior partner, given that he had been 13 and yet to ripple waves with an oar when Redgrave won his maiden Olympic title in Los Angeles.

He and Foster were reunited in 1997 when Redgrave and Pinsent transferred to a four, and James Cracknell also came on board.

Three world titles in successive years breezed by, Goode replacing Foster for the last of them.

Foster was back for 2000 when Redgrave captured his fifth gold and bowed out in Sydney, leaving Pinsent as team commander.

Had Redgrave not completed a nap hand of Olympic titles, Pinsent might have struggled for inspiration over subsequent years, but he yearned for a fourth, built up his speed by pairing Cracknell to three world titles in the men's pairs, and Athens was suddenly no longer on the horizon but at the other end of a flight, and Pinsent was in the departure lounge.

The controversial decision to pull Pinsent and Cracknell out of the men's pair, to allow for their inclusion in the four, was validated when they became the only British men's crew to reach their final.

After 2,000 metres of intense racing, the Canadians thought they had ratcheted up a famous victory, but a fraction of a second denied them. Thereafter, for what seemed like most of the morning, Pinsent blubbed away.

The next morning, he told BBC Radio 5 Live: ''I must weigh up what I miss about rowing, consider if I can live without it, see what else there is I want to do with my life and decide whether I have the mental ability to carry on.''

Opportunities for a four-time Olympic champion will not be limited. The BBC are reportedly courting him, and his confident, mature manner indicates he would be highly successful in broadcasting, capable of infinitely more than japing around as team captain on A Question of Sport.

Meanwhile, Cracknell yesterday confirmed he will take a year's break from rowing before deciding his future in the sport.

Cracknell said ''I'm probably not as hungry as I feel I need to be.

''I'll keep myself fit for a year then see if I have the desire to row again.''