A lot of people both outside and inside of the sport of rowing will think of the three legends of the sport: Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell. All three have become the well-known faces of GB rowing on merit of what they have achieved both on and off the water. Redgrave has won gold at five successive Olympic games between Los Angeles, 1984 and Sydney, 2000 with a bronze medal to top it off in Seoul, 1988. Redgrave also racked up a total of 9 gold medals at World Championships between 1986 and 1999. Pinsent near matched this feat with four consecutive Olympic gold medals between Barcelona, 1992 and Athens, 2004. Pinsent’s gold medal tally at World Championships reached 10 between 1991 and 2002 along with two boat race wins for Oxford in 1990 and 1991. James Cracknell won consecutive Olympic golds at Sydney, 2000 and Athens, 2004 and a total of 6 World Championship gold medals in just 5 years from 1997 to 2002. Cracknell is also well known for his achievements later in his rowing career and away from the classic 2000m race by becoming the oldest winner of the boat race with Cambridge is 2019 as well as completing the Atlantic rowing race in 2005/06 while being partnered by Ben Fogle. With these achievements from all three men they have merited the fame that has come with it by becoming household names of sport.
A reason as to why no one has reached their level of fame could be in the way that we now consume information from the media. When they were at the peak of their performance and pulling off some of the greatest achievements GB rowing has done, they were front and centre on the nation’s television screens and on the front pages of the newspapers during the Olympic season. Whereas now the athletes who are still performing at the top of their game are having to compete with attracting people’s attention on a whole range of media outlets, TV, newspaper, Facebook, Instagram and twitter to name a few. This means that people become famous now because a combination of factors not just for outstanding achievement, there needs to be coverage across all of the platforms and the content that is made needs to be engaged with to then reach the proportion of the population to become a household name such as Redgrave, Pinsent and Cracknell. Not to mention the simple fact that rowing isn’t hugely available in the media, aside from the Olympics; rarely do we see international events televised and understandably so: there is far more interest in other, more accessible sports.
Coverage through the British Rowing and the GB Rowing Teams Instagram accounts are steps in the right direction in growing both the audience for rowing as well as growing the profiles for the individual athletes.
It could also be argued that such household names are a thing of the past, with the golden trio ceasing their international careers in the early naughties, its even possible that people now in their twenties would not have heard of the three who are unarguably sporting legends. It’s easy to know them as rowers, but I myself have had conversations with my peers who don’t know who they are- let alone anyone in the current GB squad.
Rarely do we see international events televised and understandably so: there is far more interest in other, more accessible sports.
Coverage through the British Rowing and the GB Rowing Teams Instagram accounts are steps in the right direction in growing both the audience for rowing as well as growing the profiles for the individual athletes. With the slightly younger GB squad now forming, they have an opportunity to grow their own personas as the squad goes through the next few Olympic cycles together, hopefully picking up some impressive medal tallies along the way to boost their public perception. The GB Rowing team Instagram itself sees weekly ‘meet the squad’ posts in addition to regular training updates, making the squad feel closer to the mainstream action on the domestic scene, hopefully also inspiring the next generation. Moreover, this won’t just be an ego boost for the athletes, it can help them branch into different careers once their rowing career comes to an end. For example, they could move into presenting and broadcasting on rowing races and other sports as their image grows or they could use their following to start their own personal training company, such as Rory Gibbs has been pursuing. These are both avenues which can become open to the athletes as their careers come to an end and they need to follow their passions elsewhere. In a day and age where social media is a massive part of everyone’s lives, it is something that athletes and clubs can utilise to grow their following and they never know with a growing following lined up with great sporting achievement, maybe they can become the new household names of rowing like Redgrave, Pinsent and Cracknell.
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