How Britain’s greatest Olympian Sir Steve Redgrave didn’t make final interviews for British Rowing job… and for the first time in 40 years, he won’t be at Paris Games as his BBC work has dried up

There will be something different about the Olympics this summer. For the first time in forty years, Sir Steve Redgrave will not be there.

The British rowing legend was ever-present at the Games from Los Angeles 1984 to Tokyo 2020. He won an impressive five consecutive gold medals, before working as a pundit for the BBC, an ambassador for Team GB and, most recently, a coach for China.

As things stand, Redgrave’s only visit to Paris this summer will be a cruise down the Seine, two weeks before the Olympics begin. “The people who go on cruises are usually my kind, my age and older, so at least they can remember what I did,” jokes the 62-year-old, who will make a special guest appearance on the ship next door. fellow Olympic icon Daley Thompson.

The Redgrave name will live on in Paris 2024 through his wife Ann, GB Rowing’s chief physician, and Samantha Redgrave, who will line up in the women’s four. “She’s not related to me, but all the international coaches think she’s my daughter,” says Redgrave. ‘I’m very happy with that – but she thinks I’m more of a grandfather than a father!’

But while he can laugh about his namesake, Redgrave is still disappointed that his Olympic journey appears to have come to an end as he hoped to ‘come full circle’ by working until 2028 in the city where it all began for him, LA. .

His BBC work has slowly dried up since Rio 2016, even though his former crewmate Matthew Pinsent remains a mainstay of their reporting. “I haven’t been told I’ve stopped, but it has evolved a bit,” Redgrave tells Mail Sport from the headquarters of the Henley Royal Regatta, which he is stepping down as chairman after this summer’s event.

“Matt is the presenter and Katherine Grainger is the equivalent of what I did. The three of us worked together at the World Championships the year after Rio, but then they said, ‘Male-female, covered in Olympic medals, why do we have three?’ Working for China at the last Games probably didn’t help.’

Redgrave became high performance director of the Chinese rowing team in 2018, taking them from 16th on the medal table in Rio to joint sixth in Tokyo. He was meant to stay there until Paris but left in December 2022 after finding it difficult to visit his family due to Covid restrictions.

Prior to his official departure in November 2021, Redgrave applied for the vacant role of performance director at British Rowing. He didn’t even make it to the final round of interviews.

“I’m disappointed that I couldn’t use my skills to help the team,” he admits. ‘I felt I was in a position to be able to help with the experience of my career, and the experience of being in China, which allowed them to come from nowhere in the Olympic medal table to sixth place, well ahead of the British team .

‘I felt I was the right person at the right time for that. Clearly those in power at British Rowing did not think this was the case. But when I say that, the team is in very good shape when they go to Paris.”

The team – under new performance director Louise Kingsley – has enjoyed an extraordinary revival over the past three years.

In Tokyo 2020, Great Britain failed to win Olympic gold for the first time since 1980. However, at last year’s World Championships in Belgrade, they won four gold medals in Olympic events.

“The team lost sight of the ball in Tokyo,” says Redgrave. “There was a bit of complacency in the whole system and it kind of fell apart.

‘They now have a better structure. It will be between the Netherlands and the British to become the best rowing island in Paris.’

On the list of Britain’s most successful Olympians, Redgrave currently ranks fifth. He was the first to win five gold medals, topped by Sir Chris Hoy when he claimed sixth place in London, before Sir Jason Kenny finished seventh in Tokyo. In the debate over Team GB’s best, many would also mention the case of Sir Mo Farah, the only track and field athlete to win four Olympic titles.

And amazingly, this quartet has more than just multiple medals in common. They also share the same birthday: March 23. ‘So it’s not about the training, the most important thing is what day you are born on!’ Redgrave jokes.

I ask him where he would rank himself among Britain’s greatest Olympic athletes. “I’ve always been into team sports, so you have to elevate the individuals,” he says modestly. “Chris Hoy and I are pretty good friends. He always tells me I’m his number one – and I say he’s my number one.

‘It’s nice to still be recognized for what you’ve done. But once you leave the sport behind, you realize that there are much more important things in life than just rowing 2,000 meters.’

It didn’t feel that way, however, on September 23, 2000, when nearly seven million people at home stayed up – or got up – in the early hours of Saturday morning to watch Redgrave row for Olympic immortality.

Four years earlier, after winning his fourth gold at Atlanta 1996, he had famously said: “Anyone who ever sees me go near a boat again, you have my permission to shoot me.”

But there he was at Penrith Lake, despite being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1997 – ‘I thought my career was over’ – and breaking his arm in a freak gym accident three weeks before the Olympic trials. And his historic fifth gold was secured in the Sydney sunshine when he, Pinsent, James Cracknell and Tim Foster held off a late Italian attack to win the coxless men’s four final by just 0.38 seconds.

“You felt it captured the imagination more than previous Games,” says Redgrave. Quite an understatement about a feat that ultimately led to him being knighted and winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Everyone remembers where they were at Redgrave’s magical moment. But fewer people know how he almost retired again in the run-up to Athens in 2004. He called head coach Jurgen Grobler after seeing Pinsent and Cracknell finish fourth at the 2003 World Championships.

“He thought I was calling to give advice on why the couple wasn’t doing so well,” Redgrave recalls. “He came to my house and I said, ‘I’m thinking about a comeback, I’m thinking about trying again for the team.’ We talked and he said, “Let me think about it and we’ll talk in a few days.”

‘We were at a party at Leander’s this weekend. We never really talked about it, but he just looked at me and shook his head.

“I knew he said no, and I think he was probably right. I was too old because of my diabetes and I was out of the sport for three years.’

Twenty years later, Redgrave now manages his diabetes via an insulin pump and also takes medication for low testosterone. But otherwise he feels ‘pretty good’.

So if a country were to make an SOS call for his coaching services with 100 days to go to the Games, would he make another Olympic comeback? “Sure,” he answers. “If you’re only gone for three months, that’s a short commitment.

“If someone said, ‘Will you help us get to LA?’, that would be a harder decision. But when asked ‘Would you like to help us get to Paris?’ the answer would be yes, I’m sure.’

Perhaps the cruise ship won’t be Redgrave’s only boat in Paris after all.

Sir Steve Redgrave will join Daley Thompson as special guests on Scenic’s ‘Sporting Legends’ river cruise along the Seine in July. Visit Scenic.co.uk to book.