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.
Redgrave was born in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, to Geoffrey Edward Redgrave, a submariner in the Second World War who became a builder, and Sheila Marion, daughter of Harold Stevenson, a local bus driver. His great-grandparents Harry and Susannah Redgrave moved to Marlow from Bramfield, Suffolk, in 1887. He was educated at Great Marlow School.
Redgrave's primary discipline was sweep rowing, in which he won Olympic Gold rowing both bowside and strokeside (port and starboard).
From 1991, the crews in which he rowed became renowned for their consistent dominance, winning almost every time they raced. Profiles of the Redgrave-Pinsent pairing in particular reflected their perceived invulnerability, arguing "the best pair in the world today is Steve Redgrave, and whomever Steve Redgrave chooses to row with. The second best pair is Matthew Pinsent, and whomever Matthew Pinsent chooses to row with"; the pair were not only widely considered the best pair in the world at their peak, but the best two individual sweep rowers.
For much of his career he suffered illness: in 1992 he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and in 1997 he was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus type 2.
Redgrave won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000, plus a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Immediately after winning the 1996 Olympic gold medal, he stated in a televised interview that if anyone found him close to a rowing boat again, "you have my permission to shoot me". However, he changed his mind shortly afterward, and resumed training after a four-month break. The gold medal achieved by him and Matthew Pinsent in the coxless pair at the Atlanta 1996 games was particularly notable for being the only gold medal achieved by the entire British Olympic team across all sports during that particular Olympic games.
In 2000, he won his fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal and retired from the sport. In August 2000, prior to his final Olympic Games, the BBC broadcast Gold Fever, a three-part BBC documentary which had followed the coxless four in the years leading up to the Olympics. It included video diaries recording the highs and lows in the quest for gold, the switch from a pair to a four, and Redgrave's struggles with a series of debilitating conditions. At the medal ceremony after the 2000 Summer Olympics he was also presented with a gold Olympic pin by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch in recognition of his achievement.
At the World Rowing Championships he won nine gold medals, two silvers, and a bronze.
He won the World Championship for Indoor rowing in 1991.
He competed at Henley Royal Regatta for more than two decades, winning: the Silver Goblets & Nickalls' Challenge Cup for coxless pairs seven times (twice with Andy Holmes, once with Simon Berrisford and four times with Matthew Pinsent); the Stewards' Challenge Cup for coxless fours five times; the Diamond Challenge Sculls twice; the Prince Philip Challenge Cup for coxed fours twice; the Double Sculls Challenge Cup with Eric Sims then with Adam Clift; and the Queen Mother Challenge Cup for quadruple sculls.
He won the Wingfield Sculls for single scullers five times between 1985 and 1989.
In April 2006 Redgrave completed his third London Marathon, raising a record £1,800,000 for charity.
He starred in Top Ground Gear Force for Sport Relief in 2008, where the Top Gear Team (Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond) took on Ground Force with predictable results, and trashed his garden.
He launched his own Fairtrade Cotton Brand of clothing called FiveG, which was sold in Debenhams department stores.
He was involved in starting a rowing academy in India at Lavasa, the new Hill City being developed near Pune City.