Steve Redgrave

Steve Redgrave

Redgrave in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Steven Geoffrey Redgrave
Nationality	British
Born	(1962-03-23) 23 March 1962 Marlow, Buckinghamshire, UK
Education	Great Marlow School
Occupation	Rower
Height	6 ft 4.75 in (1.9495 m)
Weight	16 st 2 lb (103 kg) (2000)
Spouse(s)	Ann Redgrave
Website	www.steveredgrave.com
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Men's Rowing
Club	Marlow Rowing Club Leander Club
Team	GB Rowing Team
Coached by	Mike Spracklen Jürgen Gröbler
Retired	2000
Medal record Men's Rowing Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Coxed four 1988 Seoul Coxless pair 1992 Barcelona Coxless pair 1996 Atlanta Coxless pair 2000 Sydney Coxless four 1988 Seoul Coxed pair World Championships 1986 Nottingham Coxed pair 1987 Copenhagen 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 1987 Copenhagen Coxed pair 1989 Bled Coxless pair 1990 Tasmania Coxless pair Representing  England Commonwealth Games 1986 Edinburgh Single sculls 1986 Edinburgh Coxless pair 1986 Edinburgh Coxed four
Updated on 6 November 2016.

Sir Steven "Steve" Geoffrey Redgrave CBE DL (born on 23 March 1962) is a retired British 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 golds. He is regarded as one of Britain's greatest-ever Olympians, the most successful male rower in Olympic history, and the only man to have won gold medals at five Olympic Games in an endurance sport.^[1][2][3][4]

In 2002, Redgrave was ranked number 36 in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.^[5] As of 2016 he is the fourth most decorated British Olympian after Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Sir Bradley Wiggins. 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.

Early life and education

Redgrave was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, to Geoffrey Edward Redgrave, a submariner in World War II who became a builder, and Sheila Marion daughter of Harold Stevenson, a local bus driver. In 1887 his great grandparents, Harry and Susannah Redgrave, migrated to Marlow from Bramfield, Suffolk.^[6] He was educated at Great Marlow School. His birthday falls on the same day as many other notable british sportspersons, such as Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Mo Farah.^[7]

Rowing career

Redgrave's primary discipline was sweep rowing where he won Olympic Gold rowing both bowside and strokeside (port and starboard).

From 1991 the crews in which he rowed became renowned for their consistent dominance, winning almost every time they raced.

For much of his career he suffered illness – in 1992 he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and in 1997 he was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 2.^[8]

Olympic games

Redgrave won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 plus a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Games.

Immediately after winning the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal, he stated if anyone found him close to a rowing boat again they could shoot him.^[9]

In 2000, he won his fifth consecutive Olympic Gold Medal and retired from the sport. In August 2000, prior to his final Olympic games, the BBC broadcast Gold Fever, a three-part BBC documentary which had followed the coxless four in the years leading up to the Olympics. It included video diaries recording the highs and lows in the quest for gold. At the medal ceremony after 2000 Summer Olympics he was also presented with a gold Olympic pin by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of his achievement.^[10]

World Championships

At the World Rowing Championships he won nine gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze.

He won the World Championship for Indoor rowing in 1991.^[11]

Henley Royal Regatta

He competed at Henley Royal Regatta for more than two decades, winning : 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 with Eric Sims then with Adam Clift; and the Queen Mother Challenge Cup for quadruple sculls.

Wingfield Sculls

He won the Wingfield Sculls for single scullers five times between 1985 and 1989.

Life after rowing

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

He starred in Top Ground Gear Force 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.^[12]

He launched his own Fairtrade Cotton Brand of clothing called FiveG which is sold in Debenhams department stores.^[12]

He was involved in starting a rowing academy in India at Lavasa, the new Hill City being developed near Pune City.^[13]

In 2010, he was named a Patron of the Jaguar Academy of Sport.^[14]

In 2012, he took up kayaking and attempted the Devizes to Westminster marathon kayak race but had to withdraw halfway through due to tiredness.^[15]

He rowed on the Gloriana as part of the royal pageant for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.^[16]

In April 2008, Redgrave took part in the Olympic Torch relay for the games in Beijing, and he went on to be one of the final torch-bearers for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, carrying the torch into the stadium, where seven young athletes did the shared the task of lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony.

In August 2014, Redgrave was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.^[17]

Personal life

He married Ann Callaway (now Ann, Lady Redgrave) in 1988; an accomplished rower in her own right, she 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 and since 2009 their first full-time Medical Officer.^[18] He is the honorary president of British Rowing.^[19]

Steven and Ann Redgrave have three children, Natalie, Sophie and Zac. Natalie rowed with the Oxford University Women's Boat Club which won the women's boat race at Henley Boat Races in 2011.^[20][21][22]

He is a supporter of Chelsea Football Club.

He was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis before the Barcelona Olympics in 1992,^[23] and with type 2 diabetes in 1997.^[24]

Honours

In the 2001 New Year Honours he was appointed a Knight Bachelor "for services to Rowing" which he received from Queen Elizabeth II on 1 May 2001 in Buckingham Palace.^[25][26]

He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1987 and promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1997.

In 2000 he was voted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

In 2001 the International Rowing Federation awarded him the Thomas Keller Medal for Outstanding International Rowing Career.

In November 2001 he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of the University from Heriot Watt University having previously been awarded an Honorary Blue in 1997.^[27][28]

In 2002, his fifth Olympic gold was voted the greatest sporting moment in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.^[29]

The Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake was opened by him and Matt Pinsent in 2006. The lake and boathouse provide training, medical and scientific facilities for the GB rowing squad.

In 2011 he was awarded the BBC Sports – Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2013 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh "in recognition of his outstanding sporting achievements and role as a sports ambassador".^[30][31]

He is commemorated at Burnham Grammar School, Redbridge Community School and Broadlands Science and Engineering School as one of the four houses there. At Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire and Woodcote High School in Croydon, there is a school faculty (house) named after him.^[12]

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–)

Achievements

• Olympic Medals: 5 Gold, 1 Bronze
• World Championship Medals: 9 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
• Junior World Championship Medals: 1 Silver

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

Junior World Rowing Championships

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

Henley Royal Regatta

Other

• 1996 – Winner of UK Celebrity Gladiators
• 2000 – BBC Sports Personality of the Year
• 2001 – Collected a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II
• 2001 – Received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University^[32]
• 2010 – Awarded the degree of Hon. LLD from the University of St Andrews
• 2011 – BBC Sports – Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2012 – Carried the London 2012 Olympic Torch into the Olympic Stadium
• 2013 – Awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Edinburgh "in recognition of his outstanding sporting achievements and role as a sports ambassador".^[30][31]

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.
• Inspired (2009). ISBN 978-0755319640
• 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
• List of people diagnosed with ulcerative colitis

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steve Redgrave.

• Official website
• Virtual Library rowing information
• Marlow information
• Steve Redgrave at WorldRowing.com from FISA
• 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