A triple medallist and double world record breaking swimmer has told how he credits Bermuda with putting him back on the road to Olympic glory following a premature retirement.

America's Rowdy Gaines, the fastest swimmer in the world by the early 1980s, had given up the sport in 1981 -- the year after his country's boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest at the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan cost him a widely predicted five gold medals.

But after conducting a clinic on the Island with Brian Goodell, a double gold medallist in the 400 and 1500 freestyle at the 1976 Montreal Games, Gaines realised how much he was missing the competitive buzz.

He returned to Alabama, resumed training and completed his comeback by winning three golds at the Los Angeles Olympics three years later.

Now a television commentator for NBC, the 40-year-old, who returns to the Island this weekend for the first time to conduct a clinic and speak at the dinner celebrating 25 years of the Harbour Swimming Club, told The Royal Gazette : "I guess you could say Bermuda was the igniter in getting me back involved with the sport.

"I was around swimming for the whole week -- we were even given a house on the beach -- and I realised how much I missed it.

"Brian and I did the clinic and then our lives took two different paths: he retired completely and I realised I still had some goals that I wanted to achieve.

"I missed swimming, I missed the camaraderie, but most of all I missed winning.'' Missing out on Moscow had been a desperate disappointment for Gaines. At the time he had just been named World Swimmer of the Year and had set world records in the 100 and 200m freestyle.

"I was 21-years-old and at the peak of my career,'' he recalled.

"At first I was bitter and mad, but then I realised that life goes on with or without the Olympics.

"The funny thing is that nobody in our country had the foresight to see that the boycott wasn't going to work. The Olympics went ahead anyway and the Russians stayed in Afghanistan for another five years.'' At Los Angeles, he won gold as part of the 4x100 freestyle and medley teams, in addition to triumphing in the 100 freestyle with a new Olympic record just 0.45 seconds shy of his own world mark.

Later, in 1991, the swimmer renowned as a consummate technician, found himself fighting another battle after he was struck down with Guillan-Barre Syndrome, an affliction that attacks the nervous system.

"I was paralysed for about a month. I was completely gone,'' he said. "I had to learn how to do everything all over again. Twenty percent of people die from the condition and another 10-15 percent are paralysed for life. I was very fortunate, but it was maybe because of swimming that I recovered so well.

The doctors said I was in such good shape.'' A year on, he was in the pool again and winning the 50 and 100m freestyle events in the World Masters Championships.

But the experience left him with a perspective on life that he always emphasises when he is asked to talk to organisations.

"So many of us take our health for granted,'' he said. "It isn't until something like that slaps you in the face that you wake up and smell the roses. You realise that things can be taken away from you at any moment.

"When I speak I talk about the dedication and commitment it takes to be an Olympic swimmer. I swam over 20,000 miles in eight years and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

"The journey was more than the end product.''