Sir Steve Redgrave won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000.

SIR STEVE Redgrave is quite possibly Britain’s greatest Olympian. He won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 and has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds.

Renowned for his tenacity and Bulldog spirit Sir Steve has used these attributes since his rowing retirement to raise a staggering amount of money for charity and to give life and sporting opportunities to thousands of young people in the UK.

In this exclusive interview Sir Steve talks to us about the Sir Steve Redgrave Trust and some of his work as an ambassador for British rowing and sport in general in the UK. Read on to find out more about his books and also his tips for which British athletes will star at the Olympic Games in Rio this year.

To find out more about Steve and his charity work visit www.steveredgrave.com.

After your phenomenal rowing career, which of course included five Olympic gold medals, how long was it before you realised you wanted to set yourself an equally difficult challenge of creating a charity and raising the sum of £5m for it?

Throughout my career I have been involved in helping different charities achieve their goals. On my retirement announcement from the sport I knew I wanted to do something in the charity area but only came up with the £5m in five years that morning. Obviously following the theme of 5 after winning my fifth gold medal in Sydney. 

Sir Steve set up the Sir Steve Redgrave Trust to help young people realise and achieve their life goals.

When did you come up with the idea for the Steve Redgrave Trust and what are its main aims?

I wanted to focus on young people, giving them a chance in their lives. If they ever get into a strong position later in their lives they might then be more sympathetic in helping others. I tended to support smaller organisations or individual projects that don’t get much publicity.  The idea was to raise a lot of money in a short period of time when I was very much in the public eye from me sporting endeavours.

How much have you achieved so far through the Trust and what are you ambitions and goals for it in the years ahead?

We hit our target of raising 5m in five years. Within seven years we had raised 6.5m.  The trust is now a fund under Comic Relief. It is still active, but isn’t the driving part of my life now.

You played a big part in helping London win the bid to host the Olympics in 2012. How much did you enjoy the Games when they came here and how hard was it not being able to compete yourself?

I thoroughly enjoyed the Games in London in 2012 probably more than I thought I was going to. I would have loved to have competed but actually i had the best of both worlds being able to enjoy every aspect of the games without the pressure of competing.

Which British athlete are you most looking forward to watching at Rio and who do you think could be Great Britain’s surprise package?

Looking forward to Bradley Wiggins hopefully another cyclist going past my record of gold medals.  I am hoping that swimming will have a tremendous Games. Over the last couple of decades they have struggled apart from Rebecca Adlington.  We have a number of young up and coming swimmers and I am hoping it will be their Olympics with Adam Peaty at the forefront.

You can find out more about Sir Steve Redgrave and the work he does for charity through the Trust at www.steveredgrave.com.

How much are you involved in promoting rowing as a sport and how much has it grown since your Olympic days?

I’m not really involved on the international side at all.  But I am chairman of Henley Royal Regatta, which gives great profile and opportunities for our top sport stars and junior, club and university rowers. The sport is achieving so much more than any of the teams I was involved in, but unfortunately the sport loses profile because of success of other Olympic sports. The team, however, will perform well in Rio.

You’ve written seven books which is another great achievement in itself! What can our visitors expect from your books and if there’s one you’d recommend to a sports fanatic which one would it be?

I feel my best book for the general market was Inspired.  This was a combination of extracts from my sporting life and looking at other great athletes and what they achieved in their sport.  You hope when you write a book that somebody will gain something from it that may inspire them.