Steve Redgrave
Sir Stephen Geoffrey Redgrave, or less formally Steve Redgrave, (born 23 March 1962 in Marlow, England), is a British rower who won a gold medal at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000, as well as an additional bronze medal in 1988. As the only Briton ever to achieve this feat, he is widely considered to be Britain's greatest Olympian. Only four other Olympians achieved the same: Pál Kovács, Aladár Gerevich, Reiner Klimke and Birgit Fischer. Redgrave also won a bronze medal with Holmes in the coxed pairs in 1988. He has won nine Rowing World Championship gold medals.
His feats in the last four years of his career are even more outstanding if it is taken into account that Redgrave has been suffering from diabetes since 1997, causing unforeseeable bouts of fatigue when rowing.
In 1989/90 he was a member of the British bobsleigh team.
In 2000, he won his fifth consecutive Olympic Gold Medal, and retired as one of the greatest rowers of all time and became the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He made an MBE in 1987, CBE in 1997 and knighted in 2001.
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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)
- 1984 - Gold, Coxed Four (with Martin Cross, Adrian Ellison, Andy Holmes, Richard Budgett).
World 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)
- 1987 - Gold, Coxless Pairs (with Andy Holmes)
- 1987 - Silver, Coxed Pairs (with Andy Holmes)
- 1986 - Gold, Coxed Pairs (with Andy Holmes)
- 1985 - 12th, Single Sculls
- 1983 - Single Sculls
- 1982 - 6th, Quadruple Scull
- 1981 - 8th, Quadruple Scull
World Junior Championships
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After winning the Olympic Gold Medal in 1996, Redgrave, when asked if he would be competing in Sydney four years hence, said, live on British television: "Anyone who sees me go anywhere near a boat again, ever, you've got my permission to shoot me." (He reversed his decision in 1997)
Bibliography
- Steve Redgrave: A Golden age (2000) with Nick Townsend (ghostwriter). ISBN 0563551828
- 2nd edition: 2001 ISBN 056353821X
- Steve Redgrave's Complete Book of Rowing (1992). ISBN 1852251247
- 2nd edition: 1995 ISBN 1852252308
- 3rd edition: Due Spring 2005
Redgrave has also written a forward to Diabetes: The at Your Fingertips Guide