The 30-year-old, who also won the World Championship in 2006 only a year after taking up the sport, made her decision on the eve of the British Rowing trials, which will select the teams for this year's World Cup and the World Championships in New Zealand.

She said: “My passion for rowing is still there but I have to let my body recover fully, something I can’t do while continuing to train.

"As I became increasingly unwell after Beijing and following diagnosis last year, the support team from the GB Rowing team that has been integral to my success as an athlete worked hard to stabilise my condition and left no stone unturned in a bid to find a way of reintroducing me to training."

Raynsford, a former ballerina, has been in a wheelchair since 2001 after suffering a head injury.
 
She took up the sport after seeing a World Cup event at Dorney Lake in 2005 while working there for the Department of Health.

Raynsford, who has a degree in medical biochemistry, now plans to return to her career in public health which she had put on hold to prepare for Beijing.

She said: "I am going to return to my career but will still maintain links with the rowing world and I am keen to help publicise the sport."

Following Raynsford’s retirement, GB Rowing need reinforcements in the women’s arms-only single scull as well as the mixed adaptive double scull, something the team’s high performance project manager Louise Kingsley is disappointed by.

She said: "It’s frustrating that after such an active talent search period we are still looking for rowers who have the potential to fill seats in the women’s single and the double scull for London 2012."