Redgrave: ultimate Olympian

Steve Redgrave takes the plaudits in Sydney

Steve Redgrave's decision to finally call time on his international rowing career signals the end of one of the greatest individual performances in modern sporting history.

Redgrave captured the hearts of millions after pushing himself to the limit one last time to win his fifth successive Olympic gold in Sydney.

While he has become the first athlete in the modern era to achieve such an illustrious Olympic record, and the first in an endurance event, his success on the water has not been confined to the Olympics.

The Marlow-born 38-year-old made his debut on the international rowing scene in 1979 when he competed in the single sculls at the World Junior Championships.

One year later he was to pick up his first medal, on this occasion a silver, in the double sculls at the World Junior Rowing Championships.

Carrying the flag at the 1992 Olympics

He stepped up to the senior ranks in 1981, helping Britain to finish eighth at the World Championships in the quadruple scull, before the team moved up to sixth the following year.

Having been persuaded to take a break from sculling, Redgrave really rose to the nation's attention as part of the coxed four that picked up Olympic Gold in Los Angeles in 1984. Also in that victorious boat was Andy Holmes and the pair were to go on to form a successful partnership.

Hat-trick

A return to single sculls at the World Championships in 1985 saw Redgrave finish 12th, but soon the medals began to flow on a regular basis.

1986 saw him win his first World Championship title in the coxed pair and he followed it up with a hat-trick of golds at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in the single scull, coxless pair and coxed four.

A coxless pair gold medal at the 1987 World Championships and a silver in the coxed pair served as a prelude to a second Olympic success in Seoul as he and Holmes raced to victory in the coxless pair. He also picked up a bronze in the coxed pair.

Redgrave was to then link up with a new partner, in the shape of Simon Berrisford, and they teamed up to good effect at the 1989 World Championships to take the silver medal in the coxless pair.

Dominance

However, a serious back injury was to curtail Berrisford's involvement and Redgrave joined up with youngster Matthew Pinsent to enjoy further coxless pair dominance.

Redgrave enjoys world success in 1997

Following bronze at the 1990 Bronze World Championships, the pair took gold a year later, before Redgrave completed his Olympic hat-trick in Barcelona in 1992.

Three further world titles followed in successive years for the new pairing of youth and experience, before Redgrave and Pinsent succesfully retained their title in Atlanta in 1996.

"If anyone sees me anywhere near a boat, they have permission to shoot me," Redgrave famously announced minutes after his fourth Olympic triumph.

But the retirement speech proved premature as, following talks with his family, the father-of-three went back on the water picking up the coxless four World title in 1997 and adding the FISA World Cup title.

Despite discovering that he was suffering from diabetes, Redgrave retained his World coxless four title in both 1999 and 2000 as well as two further FISA World Cups - even though he and Pinsent slipped to their first defeat in major race for eight years.

And so to Sydney, where along with Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell he made Olympic history with his coxless four success.

The temptation to try and equal Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich's all-time record of six straight wins - set at the beginning of the last century - must have been great, but Redgrave has always been his own man and insists this time his decision is final.

His immediate plans are unclear - although a shot at the London Marathon is in the pipeline - but whatever career path Steve Redgrave decides to pursue, he will always be a winner.