Belgian Brouwer caught up in emotional mix

Qingdao, China: A Dutchwoman, competing for Belgium, is chasing gold alongside her former boyfriend. Their biggest rival is her fiance. Step forward Carolijn Brouwer, the only female skipper in the Olympic Tornado fleet.

The 35-year-old multihull sailor starts her third Olympic Games regatta, her first for Belgium, in harness with Sebastien Godefroid.

The pair finished second in the 2007 world championship.

Lining up against them will be Brouwer's Australian fiance - six-times world champion Darren Bundock, one of the favourites for gold with Glenn Ashby.

"It's hard. Obviously between Seb and me there is a history and obviously I'm now with Darren... we hadn't planned it this way, these are just things that happen, you cannot control that," Brouwer said.

Banned

"Darren's pretty quiet, laid back, concentrated on his own thing. We have both been around in sport for a long time and you just leave each other at peace."

Brouwer began sailing in the Tornado, a class open to both sexes and arguably the fastest and most spectacular of the Olympic fleets, when the Europe dinghy, in which she is twice a world champion, was not included for the 2008 Games.

"I was forced into a decision because they banned the Europe. I would have continued for another four years had it stayed in the Olympics. Now that I have been in the Tornado for four years there is no way back," she said.

With the Dutch berth already taken for the Tornado, Brouwer applied for a Belgian passport so she could seek qualification for these Games, a move she has no regrets at making.

"I'm happy to be sailing for Belgium. I'll always be grateful to the Dutch for the support they have given me.

"But this is a natural thing to be happening in sport nowadays."

Dutch or Belgian - "I'm both" she says - she is treated as "one of the blokes" by Tornado sailors.

"I have noticed that they hate getting beaten by chicks so they do always push a little harder if they think they can beat you on the line," said Brouwer. "But other than that, the Tornado is quite a big family."

The Beijing Games will be the last Games for the Tornado class, an Olympic boat since 1976, after it was left out of the London 2012 schedule.

"I think this will be my last Olympics, not so much because I think I'm getting old and should stop, but because there is just no other option for me," Brouwer said.

"It's a shame because I would really loved to have done another four years."