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What does it mean to be part of something as momentous as the Olympic Games?When you start to play sport, you’re living more in the moment. Then, even when you get selected to go to your first Games, it’s a great honour, but you’re thinking more about the competition. I was fortunate that, of the five Games I competed at, I won at every one. But just to be able to get to the Games, whichever sport you’re in, you’ve had to achieve great things. And then when you make it, you become part of the Olympic family. When I won gold in Los Angeles in 1984, the journalist Dickie Burnell [who won rowing gold for Great Britain at the London 1948 Games] came up to me, shook my hand and said, “You’re world champion for one year, but you’re Olympic champion for life” – and that really did sum it up. Most people would agree that you epitomise the Olympic spirit. How important was that spirit in driving you forward to multiple gold medals?I wanted to be the best athlete I could be. I dreamed about competing at the Games before I even knew what rowing was about. I remember seeing [USA swimmer] Mark Spitz compete at the Munich Games [in 1972]. I was a 10-year-old and thought, “God, wouldn’t it be amazing just to be able to go to a Games and maybe win a medal?” I think that, on the whole, athletes – once they’re involved in sport – do hold up the ethos of what sport is about, which is competing to be the best you can be. People said to me, “What would have happened if you’d lost in Sydney in 2000 [Redgrave’s final Games]? The career that you had, how would you have been able to cope with that?” I gave it a bit of thought and the reality is that if we’d lost that race and somebody else had beaten us, we’d have been disappointed, but all you can do is congratulate your opponents [because] they’ve outperformed you on that day.But if I hadn’t prepared to the best of my ability, if I hadn’t done everything I’d needed to get the best out of me on that day, that would have been much harder to take. Not everyone can be an Olympic champion, not everyone can be the best in their field, but everyone can strive to achieve a personal best; it doesn’t BRITISH ROWER STEVE REDGRAVE WON OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS AT AN UNPRECEDENTED FIVE SUCCESSIVE GAMES, BECOMING THE FIRST ENDURANCE ATHLETE EVER TO ACHIEVE SUCH A FEAT. HERE, HE REFLECTS ON HIS OLYMPIC EXPERIENCES AND WHAT THE GAMES MEAN TO HIM. INTERVIEW: PAUL JOSEPHSTEVE REDGRAVEMost successful rower in Olympic historyBorn: 23 March 1962 in Marlow, Great Britainat fi ve consecutive editions of the GamesFlagbearer for Great Britain at:72 OLYMPIC REVIEW MY GAMES