Steve Redgrave

Steve Redgrave

Sir Steven Redgrave in May 2011
Medal record
Representing Great Britain
Men's Rowing
Olympic Games
	1984 Los Angeles	Coxed Four
	1988 Seoul	Coxed Pair
	1988 Seoul	Coxless Pair
	1992 Barcelona	Coxless Pair
	1996 Atlanta	Coxless Pair
	2000 Sydney	Coxless Four
World Championships
	1986 Nottingham	Coxed Pair
	1987 Copenhagen	Coxed Pair
	1987 Copenhagen	Coxless Pair
	1989 Bled	Coxless Pair
	1990 Tasmania	Coxless Pair
	1991 Vienna	Coxless Pair
	1993 Račice	Coxless Pair
	1994 Indianapolis	Coxless Pair
	1995 Tampere	Coxless Pair
	1997 Aiguebelette	Coxless Four
	1998 Cologne	Coxless Four
	1999 St. Catharines	Coxless Four
Representing England
	1986 Edinburgh	Single Sculls
	1986 Edinburgh	Coxless Pair
	1986 Edinburgh	Coxed Four

Statue of Sir Steve Redgrave in Higginson Park, Marlow

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave CBE DL (born on 23 March 1962) is a retired English rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 as well as a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Games. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships gold medals. He has carried the British flag at the opening of the Olympic Games on two occasions. In 2011 he received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

Redgrave is the only Olympian to have won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games in an endurance sport. This achievement has led to him being hailed as Britain's greatest Olympian. Redgrave is the only British athlete to have won five Olympic gold medals and is the second most decorated British Olympian with six medals, after the seven of cyclist Bradley Wiggins.

He married Ann Callaway (now Lady Redgrave) in 1988; an accomplished rower in her own right, Ann represented Great Britain in the women's eight at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 and was Chief Medical Officer to the GB rowing team from 1992 to 2001.

Personal life

Redgrave was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Great Marlow School, a comprehensive school in Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

Redgrave has three children. His elder daughter Natalie took up rowing in 2009 and started competing for Oxford University Women’s Boat Club in 2010, and competed in the 2011 women's boat race, which Oxford won. He has another daughter, Sophie, and a son, Zak.

Rowing career

Redgrave stands 1.95 metres (6 ft 5 inches) tall. In his prime, he weighed more than 100 kilograms (16 st; 220 lb). His primary strength was in sweep oared rowing, where he has the distinction of being one of the few oarsmen to have won Olympic Gold rowing both bowside and strokeside (starboard and port). He also enjoyed success in indoor rowing, winning the World Championship for Indoor Rowing in 1991. He was also a successful single sculler winning the Wingfield Sculls five times between 1985 and 1989, but not quite a world champion class single sculler. Rowed for Marlow Rowing Club From 1991 onwards, Redgrave, and the crews in which he rowed, became renowned for their consistent dominance. They set themselves apart from many other internationally successful crews by winning almost every time they raced. Indeed, the very occasional lapses in this winning run, such as the Lucerne regatta in 2000, were regarded with surprise by both the rowing community and the press.

For much of his career, Redgrave battled against severe illnesses. In 1992, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis (although he had continued to train for a considerable time prior to diagnosis). In September 1997, Diabetes mellitus type 1 was added to his list of ailments. Through careful management, however, he was able to continue training right up to the Sydney Olympics.

In addition to his Olympic medals, Redgrave won 9 gold medals, 2 silvers, and a bronze at the Rowing World Championships. His 14 total Olympic and World Championship gold medals is unsurpassed by any other rower in history, although later equalled by his long-time rowing partner Matthew Pinsent.

Redgrave was an outstanding competitor at Henley Royal Regatta over twenty years. He won the Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup for coxless pairs seven times (twice with Andy Holmes, once with Simon Berrisford and four times with Matthew Pinsent), the Stewards' Challenge Cup for coxless fours five times, the Diamond Challenge Sculls twice, the Double Sculls Challenge Cup once (with Eric Sims) and the Queen Mother Challenge Cup for quadruple sculls once.

In 1989/1990 he was a member of the British bobsleigh team, as well as national champion.

Immediately after the winning 1996 Olympic Gold Medal in an interview Redgrave stated if anyone found him close to a rowing boat again they could shoot him.

In 2000, Redgrave won his fifth consecutive Olympic Gold Medal, retired from the sport, and became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. In August 2000, the month prior to winning gold in Sydney, he took part in a 3-part BBC documentary entitled Gold Fever. This followed Redgrave and his crewmates in the coxless four in the years leading up to the Olympics, including video diaries recording the highs and lows in the quest for his fifth consecutive team gold.

He was made an MBE in 1987, a CBE in 1997, and he became a Knight Bachelor in 2001.

In 2002, his achievement of winning gold medals at five consecutive Olympic games was voted the greatest sporting moment in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

Life after rowing

In April 2006 he completed his third London Marathon, raising a record £1,800,000 for charity.

In April 2008 Redgrave took part in the Olympic Torch relay for the games in China.

Redgrave is a supporter of Chelsea football club.

Steve Redgrave is also commemorated at Burnham Grammar School, Redbridge Community School and Broadlands Science and Engineering School as one of the four houses there.

Also, at Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire, there is a school faculty (house) named after him.

He also starred in Top Ground Gear Force (although he did not realise until it was too late) for Sport Relief in 2008, where the Top Gear Team (Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond) took on Ground Force with predictable results, and trashed his garden.

He has also launched his own Fairtrade Cotton Brand of Clothing called FiveG which is sold in Debenhams department stores.

He is also involved in starting a Rowing academy in India at Lavasa the new Hill City being developed near Pune City.

In 2010, Redgrave was named a Patron of the Jaguar Academy of Sport.

In 2012, Redgrave rowed on the Gloriana as part of the royal pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

In 2012, Redgrave was one of the final torch-bearers for the Olympic Games of London, carrying the torch into the stadium.

Achievements

• Olympic Medals: 5 Gold, 1 Bronze
• World Championship Medals: 9 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
• Junior World Championship Medals: 1 Silver
• Thomas Keller Medal Outstanding International Rowing Career: 2001 (Awarded by FISA)

Olympic Games

• 2000 – Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, James Cracknell)
• 1996 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1992 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1988 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Andy Holmes)
• 1988 – Bronze, Coxed Pair (with Andy Holmes and Patrick Sweeney)
• 1984 – Gold, Coxed Four (with Martin Cross, Adrian Ellison, Andy Holmes, Richard Budgett).

World Rowing Championships

• 1999 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Ed Coode, Matthew Pinsent)
• 1998 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Matthew Pinsent)
• 1997 – Gold, Coxless Four (with James Cracknell, Tim Foster, Matthew Pinsent)
• 1995 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1994 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1993 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1991 – Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1990 – Bronze, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
• 1989 – Silver, Coxless Pairs (with Simon Berrisford)
• 1989 – 5th, Coxed Pairs (with Simon Berrisford and Patrick Sweeney)
• 1987 – Gold, Coxless Pairs (with Andy Holmes)
• 1987 – Silver, Coxed Pairs (with Andy Holmes and Patrick Sweeney)
• 1986 – Gold, Coxed Pairs (with Andy Holmes and Patrick Sweeney)
• 1985 – 12th, Single Sculls
• 1983 – Single Sculls
• 1982 – 6th, Quadruple Scull
• 1981 – 8th, Quadruple Scull

Junior World Rowing Championships

• 1980 – Silver, Double Sculls
• 1979 – Single Sculls

Henley Royal Regatta

• 2001 – Queen Mother Challenge Cup
• 2000 – Stewards' Challenge Cup
• 1999 – Stewards' Challenge Cup
• 1998 – Stewards' Challenge Cup
• 1997 – Stewards' Challenge Cup
• 1995 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1994 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1993 – Stewards' Challenge Cup
• 1993 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1991 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1989 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1987 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1986 – Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup
• 1985 – Diamond Challenge Sculls
• 1983 – Diamond Challenge Sculls
• 1981 – Double Sculls Challenge Cup

Other

• 1996 – Winner of UK Celebrity Gladiators
• 2000 – BBC Sports Personality of the Year
• 2001 – Collected a knighthood from her majesty Elizabeth II
• 2010 – Awarded the degree of Hon LLD from St Andrews University
• 2011 – BBC Sports – Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2012 – Carried the London 2012 Olympic Torch in to the Olympic Stadium

Bibliography

• Steve Redgrave: A Golden age (2000) with Nick Townsend (ghostwriter). ISBN 0-563-55182-8
  • 2nd edition: 2001 ISBN 0-563-53821-X
• Steve Redgrave's Complete Book of Rowing (1992). ISBN 1-85225-124-7
  • 2nd edition: 1995 ISBN 1-85225-230-8
• You Can Win At Life! (2005) with Nick Townsend. ISBN 0-563-48776-3.

Redgrave has also written a foreword to Diabetes: The at Your Fingertips Guide 5th edition (2003) ISBN 1-85959-087-X

See also

• Jack Beresford, rower, Britain's most successful Olympian prior to Redgrave's fourth Gold medal, with three Gold and two Silver medals from 1920–1936
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event

Styles and Honours

• Mr Steve Redgrave (1962–1987)
• Mr Steve Redgrave MBE (1987–1997)
• Mr Steve Redgrave CBE (1997–2001)
• Sir Steve Redgrave CBE (2001–)

External links

• Official Website
• Sir Steve Redgrave Fairtrade Cotton FiveG Clothing range
• Virtual Library rowing information
• Marlow information
• Profile on RowingOne
• Video 1988 Pair(2-) Olympic race
• Video Sir Steve Redgrave discusses the key to a winning team
• Sir Steve Redgrave: myplace ambassador – creating places for young people to go to(video)
• The Sonshine of Our Lives: Sheila Redgrave tells the broader story of her son Sir Steve Redgrave
• Motion in Action Inspirational Story on Steve Redgrave