Double Olympic [Images] champion Kelly Holmes retired from running on Tuesday and announced she planned to take up the new challenge of ice dancing on a television reality show.

At an emotion-charged news conference the 35-year-old Holmes said she was no longer motivated and had also been deeply upset by the sudden death of a man she had met in Ireland.

"I don't want to do it anymore. I have achieved everything I wanted...I have nothing to prove to anybody, including myself," she said.

Holmes also said she had met a friend of her physiotherapist during a trip to Ireland, who was not feeling well after falling over in a tennis match.

"One minute I was having lunch with the guy and the next minute he had four weeks to live and he did die four weeks later," she said. "That was a life-changing experience for me."

Holmes then announced a total career change.

"I will be starring in 'Dancing On Ice'...I decided maybe I needed another challenge."

"I have never skated before. It is a lot harder than I envisaged. My family find it quite hilarious the thought of me dancing in a tutu. But I am up for it and have started training with a pro dancer," she said.

ROLLERCOASTER CAREER

Holmes confirmed she would not compete at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games [Images] next March after missing the Helsinki world championships in August with an Achille injury. She had been named provisionally in England's [Images] team for Melbourne.

A former army officer, Holmes left in 1997 to concentrate on athletics and started training with 2000 Olympic champion Maria Mutola.

• Special: Holmes run

Only the third woman in Olympic history to complete the 800-1,500 double at a single Olympic Games, Holmes was the first Briton in 84 years to win two athletics golds in the same Games.

"The fact that I hung in there totally makes me believe in fate," she said of a rollercoaster career that proved a triumph of perseverance over adversity.

Her constant battle with injuries prompted twice Olympic 1,500 champion Sebastian Coe, who twice failed to clinch the same double, to write she was a "Rolls Royce athlete being given back-street servicing".

Once asked to describe her injuries, Holmes drew a deep breath and said: "Let's see -- hips, femoral nerve, calcification of the hip bone, lower leg problems, shin problems, calf injury."

Athens, for her, was the supreme moment.

"I am not a religious person at all but I remember sitting in my room the day before the Games started. I closed all my doors and put all my inspirational messages up.

"I sat on my bed and a big gust of air swirled around my neck. At that point I knew I was going to do something special and I had that feeling during every day of the Olympic games."

(Additional reporting by Ossian Shine)