Book review: A Golden Age, by Steve Redgrave

I usually have quite a few books sitting in a pile on my bedside table.  One of them that has been there an unjustifiably long time is Steve Redgrave’s autobiography, A Golden Age (affiliate links: UK, US).

Steve showing off one of his collection

***

Why did you ignore it for such a long time?

I kept it on the back burner for two reasons.  Firstly, because it has been bothering me that I can’t row competitively any more, because at 85kg (and growing) I am too heavy to be a lightweight (75kg).  Secondly, because it is typed in slightly smaller font than I am accustomed to reading and (very unfairly) I therefore judged that it might be a bit dry.

How wrong I was!

***

So why is it so good?

It’s not just good, it’s great.  It’s great because it:

• Presents the life of one of the UK’s greatest Olympians
• Describes the UK Olympic sporting system
• Explains the effects of the 1980 and 1984 Olympic boycotts
• Outlines the different aspects of rowing training
• Stresses the importance of sports psychology for competing at an elite level
• Describes how he overcame both collitis and diabetes along the way

***

The British Olympic sporting system

Like the autobiography of Linford Christie, it presents a window into the British Olympic sporting system.  Like Linford and Geoff Capes before him, Redgrave presents an unforgiving picture of uncompromising and unsympathetic officials.  They come across as more interested in telling athletes what they should and shouldn’t do instead of helping them achieve their full potential.

In some respects, after reading both these autobiographies, it seems surprising that we as a nation have achieved as much on the field of sport as we have.

***

Sport in the media

Courtesy of Redgrave, I was also disappointed to learn that the quality of sporting reporting is no better in rowing than in sprinting (Linford Christie is particularly scathing of media reporting).

At one point, Redgrave explains that rowing correspondents often sit at the finish and judge a team’s performance on the basis of the last 45s.  Redgrave explains that they once gave a very lacklustre effort, at the end of which they were shamed into giving a final spurt.  The reporting claimed that their effort had been “gutsy” whereas in reality it had been anything but.

***

Sport and politics

It was also interesting to see how the political climate of the late 70′s and 80′s impacted on the sporting carreers and livelihoods of the athletes who were alive at the time.  The boycott of the 1980′s Olympics in Moscow by the USA and the fact that Margaret Thatcher encouraged the UK teams to follow suit caused a serious lack of funding for many British athletes, including Redgrave.

In some respects, however, this could be seen as a mixed blessing for Redgrave, who won his first gold medal in the 1984 Olympics, which was in turn boycotted by the Soviet nations (including, importantly the Russian and East German teams), in retaliation for the 1980′s boycott.

***

Rowing (and sculling) training

Much more interesting from my perspective was the frequent discussion of key training issues, including the grueling endurance aspects (Concept 2 rowing and water-based rowing), heavy weight training and psychological preparation.

From the very beginning, Redgrave talks about the importance of training and, particularly, volume of training.  As a schoolboy, he notes that “our initial attitude was – what an easy sport this is! – it was not until much later that I realised that we were as good as we were because we used to train more than anybody else.”

I should note, however, that Redgrave started out as a sculler.  The main reason for his decision to start rowing instead was the lack of UK support and competition.  He found that he was massively dominating the UK field and then going abroad for international competitions and getting blown out of the water.  However, training for both sculling and rowing has considerable overlap.

While I was not impressed with the weight training that is done (Redgrave proudly claims a 130kg bench press at 6’5″), I was very impressed with the amount and quality of the psychological preparation that his team carried out.

Redgrave talks extensively about the dedicated time that the whole Great Britain squat put into visualisation techniques for staying motivated and coping with the pressure of competition.  At the end of the day, however, Redgrave comes across as Bill Kazmaier on the water.  For him, winning was everything.

***

Redgrave’s rowing career

After all that, Redgrave’s rowing career is the most impressive thing.  He won a gold medal in five consecutive Olympic games (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000), the latter three with Matthew Pinsent.

And for those of you who can never remember, his Olympic golds were won in the events as follows:

1. 2000 – Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, James Cracknell)
2. 1996 – Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
3. 1992 – Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
4. 1988 – Coxless Pair (with Andy Holmes)
5. 1984 – Coxed Four (with Martin Cross, Adrian Ellison, Andy Holmes, Richard Budgett)

So the list on Wikipedia doesn’t recognise Redgrave as a winner of five consecutive events because of his switch between coxed four and the three coxless pair years, before the final coxless four.  Consequently, he is down at number 48 on their list, when arguably he should be up at number 2, behind the Hungarian fencer, Aladar Gerevich.

***

Would I like this book?

If you are interested in Olympians and Olympic sporting history then this is the book for you.  If you are interested in rowing, you probably already own a copy…