Steve Redgrave

What was the magic ingredient in Steve Redgrave’s ascent to sporting superstardom? His glove and shoe size, it seems. “My sports teacher,” the Olympic champion rower says, “used to look for the kids that had big hands and feet because they would make the best rowers”. And from those humble schoolboy sports beginnings his career has sailed into orbit, with a clutch of international medals. He ranked up a fair share of them from the Olympic, World Championship and Commonwealth Games. And with six Olympic medals, five of them gold, he is the greatest Olympian that Britain has produced.

But it hasn’t been a breeze; Steve has overcome serious health problems in his rise to the upper echelons of sport. His battle with diabetes means he has to undertake dialysis for the condition, but it hasn’t dampened his desire for success. Since his diagnosis in 1997, Steve has gone on to win Gold at the Sydney Olympics and the Cologne World Championships. But, as he’s learned, “failing is just as important as winning, because it drives you forward.”

Rowing isn’t the only passion in his life, however (although he admits that at one point he was training on Christmas day); he has three children and is a keen supporter of sports initiatives, so much so that he set up the Steve Redgrave Trust to further children’s education in sport.
He was awarded a knighthood in 2000 and currently supports UK charity SPARKS, which aids medical research for children.

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