Medals and motivation

To a 'Lads and Dads' evening at my son's school last knight to hear Sir Steve Redgrave.

His amazing career - 5 gold medals across 5 Olympic Games - gives him legendary status, and I'm pretty sure that every dad in the place was transported back to where they were when the GB Mens Coxless Fours won gold in Sydney. I was in front of the TV in our house at Oak Hill College, and Alan Green's memorable commentary for the BBC as they crossed the line still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up..

"I don't care what you're doing, stop it. If you're not standing, get up on your feet. Applaud Tim Foster and James Cracknell, cheer for Matthew Pinsent, but take the roof off for the greatest British Olympian of all time, the greatest rower of all time, Steve Redgrave."

Sir Steve signed books, posed for photos, did a round of the tables to talk to everyone, and generally showed himself to be a good guy.

During the talk that followed, he kept pausing to check texts updating him on the score from Stamford Bridge - just goes to show that just because you're an expert in one sport...

Sir Steve produced a torch from the London 2012 Games - 'the one that David Beckham lit' - and gave it to the lads to have their photos taken with. Even more impressively, he produced a wooden box containing his 5 Gold Medals...,and casually handed them over to the lads to let them handle and to be photographed with. Sir Steve asked them how many gold medals they thought Team GB had won over the 5 Olympics that he was involved with (From Los Angeles 1980 to Sydney 2000). Guesses were wildly off mark (130? 120?) - the answer was 'only 25...and 5 of them were mine!'

One of the questions from the boys was along the lines of 'How did you manage to get yourself out of bed on cold winter mornings to do hours of training?' That was enough to set Sir Steve off on a talk about motivation (something he does a lot of since retiring from the water) - he pointed to the difference between rowing and most other sports: Footballers play at least weekly, Cricketers play for 5 days a week during the season, whilst Rowers just train every day in preparation for a 6 minute race every 4 years. It's all about the glory of the podium, said Sir Steve, disciplining yourself now, knowing that your future success or otherwise depends on putting in the hours of training. I can hear Paul the apostle shouting 'Amen!'

After Sir Steve had told the 150 or so of us who had gathered to eat a hearty meal and to hear him all about his strict training regime that he had kept up over 25 years, the final question was from one of the dads:
Dad: 'How did you cope with coming off that heavy regime?'
Sir Steve: 'Easiest thing I've ever done in my life.'

A really enjoyable and memorable evening. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.