Olympic legend Sir Steve Redgrave is in the spotlight once again as he joins the cast of Dancing On Ice 2025.
The five-times gold medalist is stepping far outside his comfort zone, joining reality stars including Mollie Pearce and Ferne McCann in the latest installment of ITV’s ice skating show.
But who exactly is Sir Steve Redgrave, and what can fans expect from this legendary athlete as he laces up his skates?
Who is Sir Steve Redgrave?
Born on March 23, 1962, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, Sir Steve Redgrave is regarded as one of the greatest rowers in history.
His career boasts five consecutive Olympic gold medals. This record has solidified his place among the all-time greats in sports.
Redgrave’s endurance and dedication have earned him the title of the most decorated male rower in Olympic history, and one of Britain’s greatest Olympians.
In addition to his rowing success, Redgrave has carried the British flag twice at the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games.
He also received the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.
Number of Olympic medals Sir Steve Redgrave has won
Steve Redgrave’s success on the water is unmatched.
He won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 and a bronze medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
In addition to his Olympic medals, Redgrave has also won nine World Rowing Championships gold medals, two silvers and a bronze, making him a titan in the rowing community.
After winning gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he famously stated: “If anyone sees me near a boat, they can shoot me,” referring to the physical toll that rowing had taken on him.
However, just four months later, he returned to training and eventually went on to secure his fifth gold in Sydney.
What Sir Steve Redgrave is doing now
Post-retirement, Sir Steve Redgrave has stayed active in the sports community. He has taken on various roles, including working as a sports commentator for talkSPORT.
He has also taken part in various reality TV shows, including The Jump in 2015 and Celebrity MasterChef in 2019.
However, life after competitive sports has not been without its challenges. In an interview with The Times in 2015, he opened up about the financial struggles many elite athletes face.
Despite being a five-time Olympic gold medallist, he revealed: “There’s no money in the gold medals.”
Sir Steve explained: “Rowing is a training sport and not really a racing one; we race only five or six times a year. There’s no prize money. There’s no appearance money.”
He candidly admitted that he had been in debt after returning from the Atlanta Games in 1996. “People think a five-time Olympic gold medallist is financially secure. But I came back from Atlanta in debt. My account was in the red.”
Despite these challenges, Sir Steve noted that he earned more in the first few years of retirement than during his 15 years of competition.
Sir Steve Redgrave and wife Ann
Steve Redgrave is married to Dr Lady Ann Redgrave, a successful rower in her own right.
Ann competed in the women’s eight at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, finishing fifth.
Ann is also a qualified medical doctor. She founded the Redgrave Clinic, which specialises in musculoskeletal medicine.
Together, they have three children – Natalie, Sophie and Zak. Their daughter Natalie has followed in their athletic footsteps, as she competes in rowing at the collegiate level. Reflecting on their daughter’s achievements, Sir Steve told The Independent: “I can’t say if it’s inherited or not, but her whole life has been around competitive sport and watching it.”
In July 2023, Sir Steve became a grandfather, an experience he has described as humbling and rewarding.
In an interview with The Herald, he shared his desire to stay fit and healthy to enjoy time with his grandchildren. “I generally try to keep fit – nothing compared to when I was an athlete, but I try to eat healthily and look after myself.”
Speaking during Natalie’s pregnancy in 2023, Sir Steve quipped: “It’s my first grandchild, and I’m looking forward to being a grandfather. But it makes me feel old!”
Steve Redgrave on the illness he has
Sir Steve has faced numerous health challenges since retiring. He was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at the age of 35, a condition he initially thought would end his athletic career.
“My first thoughts were that my career was over. I didn’t think you could be a top athlete with that condition. But my consultant said: ‘Why not?'” he mused.
He also told The Mirror last year: “There is a mortality side to diabetes and the complications are pretty severe. If you look after yourself and monitor and control your blood sugar levels, there’s no reason why you can’t have a long and healthy life. But it is a pain, day in and day out, to make sure that your blood sugar levels are under control and that does get hard to deal with at times.
“I am starting to notice less feeling in my feet which is another one of the problems, especially being very tall. You’ve got all these complications that don’t hit you here and now, but will creep up on you sooner or later.”
‘I was losing blood, doubled up in pain’
In addition to diabetes, Redgrave has openly discussed his lifelong battle with ulcerative colitis, a chronic and often debilitating inflammatory bowel disease. He was diagnosed in 1992 and had an op to remove part of his lower bowel.
“I remember when it suddenly began. I’d gone to South Africa in January 1992 to train and gone down with food poisoning. That was the start of it. It seemed to clear up after taking medication, but then it came back as badly. We assumed it was just a vicious dose of salmonella.
“But eventually, after 17 weeks of diarrhoea, it was finally diagnosed as ulcerative colitis. Basically, they told me that my lower intestine was inflamed and oozing with blood. So I was losing blood, not absorbing nutrients, and in pain — sometimes doubled up with pain,” he told the Daily Mail at the time.
‘It took me nine years to get help’
More recently, Redgrave has discussed another health issue: low testosterone. And he’s looked at its links to diabetes.
The rower opened up about this in an interview with The Mirror in May 2023, explaining how low testosterone led to unexplained weight gain, tiredness and depression.
“What I’ve been noticing is more weight gain, especially around the stomach area, a little bit more tiredness, culminating in depression – which I would class as the worst side of it. At first, I thought it was just getting older. I just accepted it,” he said.
Steve also revealed that he realised he had all the tell-tale symptoms of the condition apart from low libido. “I don’t seem to have suffered as much of that as others,” he said.
He then added: “Us blokes don’t help ourselves. We think, I’ll ignore that and we don’t tell our mates cos they’ll take the mickey out of us. I mean, it took me nine years to get help! But it’s about finding things earlier. There’s a lot of evidence that testosterone therapy can even help reverse type 2 diabetes. It’s known that diabetics will probably die earlier than they would have done. If there is a way to improve your health and mortality, why not take it?”
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Is Sir Steve Redgrave Related to Vanessa Redgrave?
Despite sharing the same last name, Sir Steve Redgrave is not related to actress Vanessa Redgrave or the famous Redgrave acting family.
Sir Steve Redgrave scandal
Earlier this year, Sir Steve found himself embroiled in a controversy when former BBC radio presenter Danny Kelly suggested that Sir Steve lost his job presenting coverage of the Paris Olympics on the BBC because he is a “62-year-old white bloke”.
Danny accused the BBC of “box ticking” in its hiring practices. He also claimed that the network’s push for diversity led to Sir Steve’s exclusion from certain roles.
In response to the controversy, Sir Steve told MailOnline: “I wasn’t told that I’ve been discontinued, but it’s sort of evolved. Matt [Pinsent, his former rowing partner] is the presenter and Katherine Grainger is the equivalent to what I was doing. The three of us worked together at the World Championships the year after Rio, but then they went: ‘Male-female, covered on Olympic medals, why have three?’
“Working for China at the last Games probably didn’t help matter,” he added.
He clarified that he had not been formally notified of any changes regarding his role and, while he respects the need for diversity in broadcasting, he was disappointed that he was not part of the commentary team for the Paris Olympics.
Why he’s signed up for Dancing On Ice
During an interview on ITV’s This Morning as his name was revealed as part of the 2025 line-up, the former athlete admitted: “There are all these people trying to persuade me now to do it. I can’t dance, I can’t skate, why am I doing this show? I’ve got no idea at all.”
Sir Steve also acknowledged the challenge of transitioning from the rowing boat to the ice rink for Dancing On Ice. “It’s like going back to being an athlete again,” he quipped.
However, he dismissed the assumption that his athletic background would give him an advantage.
Referring to rowing, he said: “It ends up being people who are not very coordinated because it’s a repetitive sport doing the same movements over and over again.”
Despite his excitement, Steve’s friends have speculated that his participation might signal a “midlife crisis”. To this, he retorted: “I’m too old for a midlife crisis; I’m far past that end.”
As he prepares for the rigorous training ahead, Sir Steve 62, also mentioned the challenges he will face due to his size.
Standing at 6ft 5in and weighing in at around 120kg, he quipped: “I must be closest to being one of the oldest, if not the oldest, on the show, but I’m certainly the heaviest that’s ever been on the show. I need shoes made for me for skating.”
Dancing On Ice 2025 starts on ITV1 in January.
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