THE SECRETS OF THEIR SUCCESS

Fast Facts:

Pursuit: Five times Olympic gold medal winner 1984 – 2000

Definition of success: “Being the best you can be.”

For most of us, the concept of winning Olympic gold is the stuff of dreams. It shouldn’t be of course; having spoken to one or two Olympians, not to mention achievers in a host of other fields, I can tell you the vast majority of life’s champions start out with the same tools as the rest of us. They just possess that unshakeable self-belief and a level of determination bordering on tunnel vision. So admiration aside, I oughtn’t be too taken aback when I come across a sports personality who’s won more than one Olympic medal. But five in as many Games? And for those of you thinking about athletes who’ve accumulated medal hauls numbering in double figures (yes, we’re all picturing a certain swimmer!) allow me to refocus your perspective. This man’s last gold was in 2000, his first way back in 1984. That’s the year Prince Harry was born, and another Prince was singing about Purple Rain; the first Macintosh computer was unveiled, you could legally tape programmes on TV with your video and Arnie first stepped into the motorcycle boots and leather jacket of The Terminator. Remember Wham’s ‘Wake me up before you go-go’, Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA? Same year. I’m sorry, if I’m making anyone feel old, this guest proves that age really is just a number. Because since those halcyon days of the mid-eighties, right up until the turn of the millennium, he was at the very pinnacle of his sport. And so it gives me great pleasure to welcome, an inspiration to us all, Sir Steve Redgrave.

It’s hard to know where to start with a sports personality so prolific as this, so in the name of logic, perhaps we’ll begin at the beginning. As you might imagine, Steve is a fanatic of competition right across the sporting spectrum – but how did he get into rowing? 

“I loved all sport,” Steve affirms. “I was quite a good sprinter. When I went to my secondary school, a small comprehensive with a very small boat club, which the Head of the English Department ran, he asked me if I would like to give rowing a go. I felt privileged doing something most other students at my school weren’t given the chance to do.”

I wonder if that sense of privilege is what spurred Steve on from a small school rowing club to Olympic greatness, driving him through a training regime which most of us couldn’t even begin to conceive of. 

“Two to six hours a day,” Steve responds when I ask him what it takes to become an Olympic champion. “Seven days a week. A day off once every three weeks, for forty-nine weeks a year.”

That was then, this is now. But don’t assume Steve’s life post-rowing is all daytime television and window shopping. These days there is the Steve Redgrave Fund, affiliated with Sport Relief, a charity whose efforts have raised in excess of £5m towards bettering the lives of disadvantaged children and young people; there’s the motivational speaking; his support for fellow diabetes sufferers and his input on dealing with diabetes in sport; there are business commitments, books, newspaper columns. The list goes on and the road to commitment remains, it’s only the vehicle that changes. I ask Sir Steve how he compares his life today with his career as a champion sportsman:

“My life now isn’t so structured so it is difficult to give a comparison,” he explains. “As an athlete you have very structured training days. My life now is very unstructured. I don’t do a nine to five job, but I am doing something most of the time. There is no typical day.”

I think that relentless determination honed at the oar will always be a part of Steve, like an old coat you wear just because it feels right. Take a look at his website and you’ll see that life after rowing goes on. He’ll succeed too, at whatever application he devotes himself to, through a fear of squandering his own abilities:

“Getting the best out of my potential,” Steve says of his proudest achievement. “I had the potential to be a multiple world and Olympic champion and I was able to fulfil it.”

The intonation is profound, and not lost on me: we all have ambitions, hopes of grand achievement – it simply comes down to the application of our potential. Perhaps that’s all that separates the champions from common society.

Speaking of common society, I like to ask my guests if they ever yearn for the nine-to-five, a more conventional life-style. Perhaps they’d like to know what working hours the day ahead will hold, receive a fixed salary at the end of the month; have weekends off. Almost all of them enthuse over the incomparable satisfaction they achieve from their pursuits, be it singing, writing, acting or competing, and it’s fascinating to hear the way they relate to the alternative lifestyle. A five-time Olympic champion, one of the most successful sports personalities of all time – I know this is going to be insightful, so I ask Steve: does he ever have cause to envy those in pursuit of a more routine way of life?

“No.”

Right. Well, point made – can’t argue with that..

Luckily Sir Steve is a little more verbose when it comes to advising us on his own brand of success, and how to achieve it: 

“Enjoy the moment; enjoy what you are doing; this is a good recipe for getting success. It doesn’t mean you have to enjoy every element of what you are doing but the more you enjoy the more you achieve, with drive, determination and dedication.”

My thanks to Sir Steve Redgrave for giving generously of his time, to offer us all some inspirational words as well as an insight into the life of one of Britain’s greatest ever Olympians. If you’d like to discover more about the makings of a champion, visit Steve’s website at www.steveredgrave.com. If, like Steve, you are afflicted with Diabetes (or if you’d just like to know more about it) there’s some great support to be found here: www.steveredgrave.com/diabetes 

You should also take the time to read about Steve’s charity work at www.steveredgravefund.com. 

Steve’s latest book Great Olympic Moments is a must for all Olympic enthusiasts, covering not only his own experiences but some of the most celebrated – and infamous – moments in Olympic history:

Lastly, you can keep up to date with all the latest goings on in Steve’s life on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SirSteveRedgrave 

Image 1: Getty Images | EMMANUEL DUNAND

Image 2: Getty Images | SIMON BRUTY