Steve Redgrave

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

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave CBE (born on 23 March 1962, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire) is an English rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships gold medals.

Redgrave is one of only four Olympians to have won a gold medal at five consecutive Olympic Games. This achievement led to him being hailed as Britain's greatest Olympian.[1][2][3]

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 - 2001.

Contents

Education

Redgrave was educated at Great Marlow School, a state secondary comprehensive school in Marlow in Buckinghamshire.

Rowing career

Even by rowing standards, Redgrave is a big, powerful man. He stands 1.95 metres (6 ft 5 inches) tall. In his prime, he weighed more than 100 kg. 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.[4] 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.

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 late 1997, diabetes was added to his list of ailments. Through careful management, however, he was able to continue training right up to the Sydney Olympics.[5]

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.[1]

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.

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 Gear Ground 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 Station being developed near Pune City. (ref: www.lavasa.com)

Achievements

Olympic Games

World Rowing Championships

Junior World Rowing Championships

Henley Royal Regatta

Other

Bibliography

Redgrave has also written a foreword to Diabetes: The at Your Fingertips Guide.

See also

Styles and Honours

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Queen honours Redgrave". BBC News. 2001-05-01. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1306205.stm. 
  2. ↑ "Sir Steve steps out for diabetes". BBC News. 2001-06-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1381089.stm. 
  3. ↑ Hart, Simon (2003-09-06). "Olympics: London want Redgrave in driving seat". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/2420368/Olympics-London-want-Redgrave-in-driving-seat.html. Retrieved 2010-05-24. 
  4. ↑ CRASH-B Sprints World Indoor Rowing Championships Historical Winners
  5. ↑ Gallen, Ian W.; Ann Redgrave, Steve Redgrave (2003-07-01). "Olympic Diabetes" (PDF). Clinical Medicine, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians 03 (04): 333–337. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/search/download;jsessionid=8mtp2c6boj3rf.victoria?pub=infobike%3a%2f%2frcop%2fcm%2f2003%2f00000003%2f00000004%2fart00011&mimetype=application%2fpdf. 

External links

BBC Sports Personality of the Year winners
1954–1959

1954 Christopher Chataway · 1955 Gordon Pirie · 1956 Jim Laker · 1957 Dai Rees · 1958 Ian Black · 1959 John Surtees
1960–1969

1960 David Broome · 1961 Stirling Moss · 1962 Anita Lonsbrough · 1963 Dorothy Hyman · 1964 Mary Rand · 1965 Tom Simpson · 1966 Bobby Moore · 1967 Henry Cooper · 1968 David Hemery · 1969 Ann Jones
1970–1979

1970 Henry Cooper · 1971 HRH The Princess Anne · 1972 Mary Peters · 1973 Jackie Stewart · 1974 Brendan Foster · 1975 David Steele · 1976 John Curry · 1977 Virginia Wade · 1978 Steve Ovett · 1979 Sebastian Coe
1980–1989

1980 Robin Cousins · 1981 Ian Botham · 1982 Daley Thompson · 1983 Steve Cram · 1984 Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean) · 1985 Barry McGuigan · 1986 Nigel Mansell · 1987 Fatima Whitbread · 1988 Steve Davis · 1989 Nick Faldo
1990–1999

1990 Paul Gascoigne · 1991 Liz McColgan · 1992 Nigel Mansell · 1993 Linford Christie · 1994 Damon Hill · 1995 Jonathan Edwards · 1996 Damon Hill · 1997 Greg Rusedski · 1998 Michael Owen · 1999 Lennox Lewis
2000–2009

2000 Steve Redgrave · 2001 David Beckham · 2002 Paula Radcliffe · 2003 Jonny Wilkinson · 2004 Kelly Holmes · 2005 Andrew Flintoff · 2006 Zara Phillips · 2007 Joe Calzaghe · 2008 Chris Hoy · 2009 Ryan Giggs