James Cracknell

James is one of Britain’s most successful rowing champions, winning Olympic Golds at the Sydney and Athens games and six World Championship titles. Although he retired from competitive rowing in 2006, he was in the winning Cambridge crew of the 2019 Boat Race making history as the oldest rower ever to compete! In 2005 James was awarded the OBE for services to sport. James first came to prominence as a member of the British coxless fours which won the World Junior Championships in 1990. From 1996 he partnered with multiple Olympic medal winners Steven Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent in a new four which won all three subsequent world titles and Gold in the Sydney Olympics. After Redgrave’s retirement he rowed in coxed and coxless pairs with Pinsent winning three more World Championships. He then moved back into coxless fours for the Athens Olympics, winning Gold in a thrilling finish by just 0.08 seconds! In retirement he has been active as a TV presenter, journalist and fund raiser. He has taken part in extreme challenges such as rowing the Atlantic and competing in the Marathon des Sables. In 2010 while cycling on an endurance race across North America he was knocked off his bike and suffered a traumatic brain injury from which he has largely recovered.