Webb's big worry is to stay afloat after glory

"I'm not sure what I'm going to do," Webb admitted. "I'm worried in that if I start a new Olympic campaign, then paying off my debts (about £20,000) is going to remain very difficult. Otherwise, I'll have to make the decision not to carry on competitive sailing and sort out my finances.

"I don't want to sound like a drama queen but at some point soon I'm going to have be paying off more than the minimum payments or else they'll hound me for the rest of my life and I'll be living at home, being bailed out by my parents, forever."

The other day, Webb was offered an office job again.

"I nearly took it," she pondered. "Then I thought, 'This is ridiculous, surely I can somehow capitalise on what we've just achieved rather than sitting at a computer for not a lot of money'."

So far, though, Webb has discovered the time-honoured reality for Olympic champions in minority sports, even though the tale of three gutsy, attractive sailors did briefly capture the public's imagination.

"When you put that Olympic tracksuit on, like in the parade, the whole world knows who you are," mused Webb without bitterness.

"In your own clothes, nobody recognises you. You get your 20 days of fame and then people forget.

"I'm not naive enough to have thought people would shower money on us right, left and centre but I've no personal sponsor and would like to think as Olympic champion, I might be able to act in an ambassadorial role for a company or something like that. Just a bit of support, something that allows me to keep on sailing."

Webb is not looking for sympathy, though. She accepts when she decided to quit her job as a buyer two years ago and took out the loan to purchase an Olympic-quality boat and a car to tow it around to major regattas abroad, she knew exactly the potential pitfalls of this gamble.

"I realise my financial problems are partly because I didn't manage them," she said.

"I'd missed out after trying to get to the Sydney Games but just decided I had a dream and had to do my best for it." That dream would have died without the constant backing of her parents, with whom she still lives.

In sporting terms, the risk paid off once she teamed up with Robertson and Ayton 18 months before this summer's Games in the Yngling class.

The trio dominated in Athens but they may not compete together again.

Double champion Robertson said yesterday she was still considering her future and the trio won't know until the end of the month whether Yngling will even be included in the Beijing Olympic programme. It's possible Webb could compete just with Ayton or in a single-handed class. Or not at all.

Yet even if her future is unclear, she's certain she got one thing right.

"On Capital Radio, people talk about their dilemmas and the other day, this woman explained, 'I'm broke. Should I take out more money to pursue my dream or realise I'm just being silly and go back to work?'.

"It made me think, 'God, if I'd actually thought about it more at the time, would I have taken out that loan?'.

"And then I had to remind myself: don't be ridiculous, you're an Olympic champion. Was it all worth it? Absolutely."

Just a hunch but it's hard to imagine Webb poring over that computer quite yet.