BEWILDERED, Tanni Grey-Thompson sits on the floor of her Redcar bungalow. On Monday she was basking in the Sydney sunshine. Now she's back home in the chilly North-East, facing a gruelling schedule travelling up and down the country. Everyone wants to talk to Britain's newest Olympic hero; she just wants to relax. And on top of all her engagements, she's moving house to another part of Redcar.

Not that she minds. As far as Tanni is concerned, anything she can do to promote the wheelchair athletics movement is fine by her.

Tanni returns from Sydney as the most successful Paralympic champion in history with four gold medals, in the wheelchair 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres, to add to her collection. These include a bronze from the 1988 Seoul games, four golds from Barcelona, four silver medals from Atlanta and numerous world, commonwealth, British and marathon championship titles.

Tanni was born in Cardiff 31 years ago with spina bifida, a malformation of the spine, and is the younger daughter of Peter and Sulwen Grey. By the age of seven, she was confined to a wheelchair.

At the Teesside home her daughter shares with her husband, wheelchair athlete Ian Thompson, Sulwen says she knew nothing about spina bifida when Tanni was born, but she and her husband were determined there would be nothing her daughter couldn't do. They succeeded; Tanni says her parents have encouraged her to be a determined fighter.

"My parents never believed disability should get in the way. And they were forward thinking," she says. "At the time, parents believed kids couldn't do stuff just because they were disabled, but mine didn't and that was a positive influence. I don't think I was treated any differently at home or at school.

'I went to a very good mainstream school which was very positive. I can't remember thinking I couldn't do stuff. I was just encouraged to be the best I could.

"I think I could have done it without that kind of support but it makes it so much harder. Having people around who understand what it is I am trying to do, is pretty important to me."

Tanni can't remember a time when she wasn't interested in sport and has always been involved in a lot of sports and PE at her school in Cardiff. But she became more and more interested in athletics because it was an individual sport.

"I was never very good at team sports. I liked doing stuff on my own and I was better than others," she says.

Her sporting idol is the wheelchair athlete Chris Hallam. "One of the first things I can remember watching on television was the marathon and Chris was one of the early winners," says Tanni. "Seeing him do it made me believe I could too."

Tanni thinks it's great that young disabled wannabe athletes watched her achievements in Sydney, and hopes they find some inspiration too. She is full of praise, too, for the unpatronising way in which the games were covered on TV and in the newspapers. "The coverage was so much better. It was about me and the others as athletes, rather than disabled people, and that is so much more positive," she says.

Tanni started her Olympic career at the games in Seoul in 1988. She came away with a bronze medal in the 400 metres. "It was good for me. I was only 18 and suddenly I was competing at a different level. I think you have to be there to understand what it is about - and there is nothing quite like the Paralympics."

She went on from Seoul to win four gold medals in the Barcelona games, four silver medals in the Atlanta games, and finally on to her magnificent achievement in Sydney. But her proudest moment came when she was asked to carry the British flag at the closing ceremony.

"You don't really think about it too much before you are nominated by the team managers, but it was pretty amazing. It's fantastic when you go out with the flag and there are 350 team-mates going mad because they have seen the Union Jack. It is quite impressive."

Tanni thinks the reason she did so well in Sydney was because she was relaxed. "If you are relaxed about the whole thing, nothing can stop you. You can't worry about anything but your own performance and that is what you have to concentrate on. But I still throw up before every single race because I am so nervous. I'm too old to change that now."

Her overriding memory of the games is waiting - waiting to compete, waiting for medal ceremonies, waiting to see friends and family to celebrate success. "It's a bit strange because you go from being in front of 65,000 people to waiting in a room for the medal ceremonies and you can't go anywhere and all you want to do is see your friends and family."

The adrenaline rush, the applause, the state-of-the-art stadium, the huge crowds - it's all a far cry from Redcar, where Tanni trains on the Trunk Road.

"The roads here are really good for training. Because of all the industrial sites, the dual carriageways are in really good condition," she laughs. "Redcar reminds me a lot of Cardiff - the people are really friendly and you get to know your neighbours really well."

She trains ten times a week and has just six weeks break per year. For six sessions she is in her wheelchair, covering a distance of 120 miles and she also does three sessions a week in the gym. It's a punishing schedule, but she has no plans to stop just yet.

Tanni plans to retire after the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. She wants a family before her body burns out from her rigorous training schedule. And, in the meantime, she just wants to go on doing what she does best.

"To me, it is about doing well. Some of my best races are races I haven't won, but for me it is about coming home knowing I have raced the best I possibly could."