There are not many people who can claim to have reached the very peak of their powers and achieved the ultimate reward in their chosen field.  Oscars, Pulitzers, Nobel Prizes and World Cups are desired by many but possessed by very, very few.

Fewer still are the people who can continually absorb the pain and the pressure to come back and do it again and again, on the very biggest stage.

Sir Steve Redgrave is part of this elite group.  In fact, he could be their leader.  His career as a rower transcends the discipline of the sport itself – he was more than a rower – he was a servant to sport, an ambassador of achievement.  The essence of winning reads ‘Redgrave’. 

Gold in Los Angeles 1984; Gold in Seoul 1988; Gold in Barcelona 1992; Gold in Atlanta 1996; Gold in Sydney 2000; the words Redgrave, Olympics and Gold are inexorably linked: You can’t say one without mentioning the other two.  As an athlete, he is the Olympian’s Olympian.  He was also World Champion eight times.

Simon Barnes, Chief Sports Writer for The Times, suggests that what Sir Steve Redgrave has done alleviates him to a status beyond normal humanity: “Redgrave is not only a person.  Redgrave is also a quality.  Napoleon would ask of his generals: ‘Has he luck?’  I ask of athletes: ‘Has he Redgrave?’  Redgrave is the ability to go beyond…it is the ability to commit, day after day, to the one goal of winning.”

The pain, sacrifice and dedication required to do what Redgrave has done has been well documented.  The fact that he suffered from diabetes, colitis and lifelong dyslexia whilst doing this makes his achievements all the more remarkable.  He has been asked countless times what his secret was, how he did it, what inspired him to break through all the boundaries and barriers that he confronted over the years.

But, addressing an inner-city school group in Glasgow as he helped to promote the city’s 2014 Commonwealth Games bid, the answer is obvious before any of those questions are even asked.  It is one of the first utterances to come out of his mouth as soon as he stands to speak.

“What you put into something, you will get out of it.  That is a good lesson for life in general,” he announces to his captive young audience, no doubt doubly grateful that not only are they getting a morning off school lessons, they are instead being taught some life lessons by one of the world’s greatest role models.

As these final year pupils face up to twelve months of life shaping challenges and decisions – exams, university considerations, career prospects – there is little more that needs to be said to point them in the right direction. 

However, on this particular Thursday morning in September, there are other things paramount on the mind of these Scottish students.  It is very much the morning after the night before, the night before being the one when James McFadden rifled Scotland’s football team to a famous victory over France in Paris.  One eager pupil was keen to find out what one of life’s great winners thought of this particular victory.

“It is passion that brings teams like Scotland through, the spirit and the bond of the players.  It’s not just about one person; it is about the team around you that enhances you to get the best out of yourself,” answered Sir Steve, in the process not only satisfying his audience that he knows a bit about football, but once again indirectly passing on valuable pointers to his interrogators.

Reminiscing on his own childhood, Redgrave recalled that he learned early in his sporting career the difference between being a winner and a loser, and how being one can quickly turn into the other.

Having trained hard won every regatta in his first season as a rower at under-14 level, the young Redgrave and his team rested on their laurels.  Defending that crown, they assumed, would then be a formality, and his team didn’t work as hard in training.  When they started losing races that they easily won the season before, Redgrave realised he had learned his first big lesson in sport.

“I felt I had my name already engraved on the trophy.  But I soon realised I had to go out and make it happen.”

And from there on he only wanted to get better and better, and worked harder and harder to get there, setting himself targets along the way.  Every time he reached one, he set himself another, a mindset which spanned the course of his career:  “The human race is a lazy race.  Only a few raise the bar,” he reminded his audience.

Speaking to In The Winning Zone after addressing the pupils, Sir Steve explained that his teenage daughter, Natalie, isn’t harbouring any ambitions of becoming a rower, which seems surprising considering she is from the same DNA stock as he. 

“She is passionate about sport, but she doesn’t really want to compete, because she doesn’t want to follow in her parents’ footsteps, as both my wife and I competed at international level.  It is very hard for her to go down that avenue.  But she will go into an area that she will have a passion for. 

“So one of the things I don’t encourage is ‘you have to do sport’.  It is about finding something you love doing and that you get something out of.”

A reminder from a great sportsman and a great winner that you don’t need to excel in sport to succeed in life, though, commenting on London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, he concluded: “Having the best sports events in the world is much bigger than just sport.  It is about education, it is about health issues, it is about all these things. 

“With or without the Commonwealth Games in 2014, with the focus that has been put on them, it is about being able to change people’s mindsets about healthy living and exercise.  Nobody can argue against that.”

RO

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