Sir Steve Redgrave

Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave (born 23 March 1962) is a British retired 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 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. Redgrave is regarded as one of Britain's greatest-ever Olympians. Celebrated as the most decorated and successful British Olympian in history at the time of his retirement in 2000, as of 2025 he is the fifth-most successful British Olympian, after Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Bradley Wiggins, and Laura Kenny, all track cyclists. He has carried the British flag at the opening of the Olympic Games on two occasions. In 2002, he was ranked number 36 in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. He received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year – Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. Although he raced in a series of different pairs and foursomes, Redgrave's career is most closely associated with long-term colleague and fellow knight of the realm, Sir Matthew Pinsent, with whom he won three of his Olympic gold medals, and seven of his World Championship titles.