Talent is not enough
So much for retirement. On Wednesday my financial adviser trawled through my balance sheets and told me I’d have to keep on giving speeches until I’m well into my seventies. There are probably better ways of earning money. I’ve been asked to appear on I’m a Celebrity... and umpteen other shows, but I’ve turned them all down. I’m not a celebrity. I just happened to win some races.
My latest book, Inspired, looks at what it takes to excel as a sportsman. Talent is not enough. You need that voice within that makes you overcome the worst adversity and get back on your feet. I certainly had to overcome adversity to write books, as I suffer from dyslexia.
Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali are among the greats in my book, but Linford Christie, the 1992 100-metre champion, is not included and I don’t think he should have anything to do with London 2012. He tested positive for drugs and if he were to be involved it would send out the wrong message. The two-year ban for drug-taking is way too mild. It suggests to young athletes that you can take steroids to boost your performance, get caught — then lie low for a couple of years before you start winning medals again.
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Two-breakfast diet
Sport cannot solve the country’s problems, but it can change lives and our schools should be doing much more of it. On Monday I went to Southampton to launch a project to fund the installation of rowing machines in inner-city schools. I believe exercise is absolutely core to children’s wellbeing. Jamie Oliver did a great job improving school menus. But when it comes to childhood obesity, food is not the real problem. You can eat junk food so long as you burn it off. It’s the exercise that counts.
When I was training I would eat between 6,000 and 7,000 calories a day. People were amazed by my breakfasts. I’d have two a day. The first was a mountain of porridge or cereal; the second was an enormous fry-up. Then a few hours later it was time for a Pavarotti-sized pasta lunch. And I grazed all day long on biscuits.
Tangled up in bed
I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 35 but I don’t follow any particular diet and I try not to let it interrupt my life — although that’s a challenge, given that I am now connected to an insulin drip, day and night. I didn’t realise what a restless sleeper I was until I started waking up in the morning with the tubes all tangled round me.
When I was diagnosed I had moments of blackness, when I thought I would have to quit sport altogether. But something pulled me through — a combination of pride and competitiveness.
Missing a focus
Rowing is a very intense sport. Sometimes my friends ask me, “Why don’t you go for a paddle on the river?” But if there’s nothing to achieve, I can’t see the point. The last time I rowed in anger was more than a year ago in a veterans’ race at the Henley Regatta. I haven’t lost my competitive edge. But when I compete now I’m beaten by mediocre rowers who happen to be in better shape.
That’s sobering
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My wife Ann is a former Olympic oarswoman, but even she felt that my commitment to rowing was unusual. When I was rowing competitively, it was everything. The world could have been burning all around me and I’d have carried on. Rowing definitely put a strain on our marriage. I was at it seven days a week, 49 weeks a year — I wouldn’t stop. Ann writes in her contribution to my book that I never did any housework. I think I’ve improved. She was away at a conference for two nights last week and I looked after our youngest daughter and managed to get a meal on the table.
I enjoy family life more.
I knew I was getting less competitive when I started feeling proud when my children beat me at Monopoly. But I miss the focus of Olympic training. In comparison, everything else feels like a hobby.
Good king Hal and me
According to an internet poll, I’m the 38th most famous Briton that ever lived. Henry VIII comes in at No 40. The difference is that he’ll still be there in 200 years’ time, and I’ll be forgotten. I’m happy with that.
Sir Steve Redgrave is talking to Anne-Marie Minhall on Classic FM today in the first of a series of Sunday Times For All You Are interviews, available on podcast at www.classicfm.co.uk/on-air/podcasts/ sunday-times-all-you-are-podcast/