Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave: Renowned Olympics rower

This celebrated British rower won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games, making him the only person to have achieved such a feat. He also won three Commonwealth Games medals as well as nine golds at the World Rowing Championships and was knighted in 2001.

Sir Redgrave was born to Geoffrey Edward Redgrave and Sheila Marion in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, on March 23, 1962. He studied at Great Marlow School. Redgrave grew up near the banks of the River Thames and took up rowing at age 16. He first represented Great Britain at the world junior championships in 1979 and moved to the senior team two years later.

Career
He won his first Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games in the coxed four event. Thereafter he focussed on rowing pairs over single sculls and on the winter sport of bobsledding. In 1988, he rowed with Andy Holmes to win a bronze in the coxed pairs and a gold in the coxless pairs event at the Seoul Olympic Games. At the 1992 Barcelona Games and 1996 Atlanta Games, he partnered with compatriot Matthew Pinsent to win a gold medal again in the coxless pair event. The gold medal that he won with Pinsent in the coxless pair at Atlanta was particularly notable for being the only gold medal achieved by the entire British Olympic team across all sports during that particular Olympic Games. Redgrave subsequently announced his retirement from international rowing but returned once more to win gold in the coxless fours event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. At the medal ceremony after the 2000 Summer Olympics, he was also honoured with a gold Olympic pin by then IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of his achievements. Besides 12 world championship and three Commonwealth Games gold medals in his illustrious career, Redgrave had many victories in the Henley Royal Regatta Diamond Sculls. He won the Wingfield Sculls for single scullers five times between 1985 and 1989. He ended his career on a high at the age of 38 in 2000, when he won his last title with the British coxless four.

Personal Life
Redgrave married fellow rower Ann Callaway in 1988. They had three children -- Natalie, Sophie and Zak Redgrave. He is the honorary president of British Rowing. Callaway, who represented Great Britain in the women’s eight at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, is medical officer to the GB rowing team. He has now retired from rowing and pursues various commercial and charitable interests. He is revered for intensity and strategic brilliance.

Achievements and honours
Redgrave was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1987 and 10 years later was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 2002, he was ranked 36th in the BBC’s 100 Greatest Britons. He received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award - the BBC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the very next year the International Rowing Federation awarded him the Thomas Keller Medal for Outstanding International Rowing Career. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Heriot Watt University in 2001 and University of Edinburgh in 2013. During his illustrious career, Redgrave won 12 medals in the World Championships -- nine golds, two silvers and one bronze medal, besides 5 Olympic golds. He also won three gold medals at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.

Interesting Facts
In 2002, Steve Redgrave was ranked 36th in a poll conducted by the BBC to identify the 100 Greatest Britons. In 2016, he became the fourth most decorated British Olympic athlete.

Redgrave continued to compete in rowing events in spite of suffering from ulcerative colitis. He was also involved in an initiative to launch a rowing academy in India near Pune city.

In 2002, Redgrave’s fifth Olympic gold was voted as the greatest sporting moment in Channel 4’s 100 Greatest Sporting Moments. He also avidly follows soccer and is a fan of the Chelsea Football Club.

In 2006, Redgrave completed his third London Marathon, raising a record £1.8 million for charity. In the same year he, along with Matthew Pinsent, opened the Redgrave Pinsent Rowing Lake which provides training, medical and scientific facilities for the British rowing squad. At the Linton Village College in Cambridgeshire and Woodcote High School in Croydon, a faculty has been named after this rowing ace.