James Cracknell

James Edward Cracknell, (born 5 May 1972) is a British athlete, rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist.

Cracknell began rowing whilst attending the independent Kingston Grammar School and rowed at the Junior World Championships in 1989 and 1990, winning a gold medal in 1990.

He graduated from the University of Reading as a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Human Geography in 1993, followed by a PGCE at the Institute of Education and a Master of Science (MSc) from Brunel University in 1999.

Moving into the senior squad, Cracknell made numerous appearances in the World Rowing Championships; however, he did not win any medals prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

He qualified in the double scull for the 1996 Games, but fell ill with tonsillitis and was unable to race.

In 1997, he won a seat in the men's coxless fours, with Steve Redgrave, Matthew Pinsent and Tim Foster.

With this crew, he won the World Rowing Championships in 1997, 1998 and 1999 (with Ed Coode replacing the injured Foster), and finally the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

In August 2000, the month prior to winning gold in Sydney, he took part in a 3-part BBC documentary entitled Gold Fever.

This followed the coxless four team in the years leading up to the Olympics, including video diaries recording the highs and lows in their quest for gold.

With Redgrave then having retired, Cracknell swapped from rowing on strokeside to bowside to join Pinsent in the coxless pairs.

The pair won the World Championships in 2001, when they also won the coxed pairs, and 2002.

However, in 2003 a disappointing season was capped by a failure to win the World Championships, and Pinsent and Cracknell were shifted into the coxless four, with Steve Williams and Alex Partridge.

Ed Coode replaced the injured Partridge in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics and this crew won the gold medal in Athens, beating world champions Canada by 0.08s.

Cracknell was appointed OBE for "services to sport" in the 2005 New Year Honours List.

He came second in the pairs division of the 2005–2006 Atlantic Rowing Race in "Spirit of EDF Energy", partnered by Ben Fogle.

Although they took first place in the line honours of the pairs event (overall, they were third to finish the race behind the two men's fours), the use of ballast water during the race resulted in the pair being moved to second position of the pairs event in accordance with the race rules.

The event helped raise money for Children in Need.

They made landfall in Antigua at 07.13 GMT on 19 January 2006, a crossing time of 49 days, 19 hours and 8 minutes.

In February 2006, he announced his decision to retire from competitive rowing.

Shortly after, Through Hell and High Water, a BBC/Twofour television programme of Cracknell and Fogle's experience of the Atlantic race, was aired.

The pair wrote a book called The Crossing: Conquering the Atlantic in the World's Toughest Rowing Race, about their trip.

On 4 March 2006, Cracknell's home was burgled: his Olympic gold medals were stolen, together with his wedding ring and a computer containing 20,000 words of a new book and family photographs.

The gold medals were subsequently recovered by a neighbour's dog where the thief had discarded them.

The thief, Mark Murphy, 30, was caught and jailed.

He ran the London Marathon on 23 April 2006, in a time of 3 hours, finishing over an hour ahead of his rowing teammate Matthew Pinsent.

In January 2008 Cracknell set up Threshold Sports with Julian Mack and Charlie Beauchamp.

In December 2008 he set off yet again with former teammate from the Atlantic Row, Ben Fogle, and Dr Ed Coats (the winner of a nationwide search), this time to take part in the inaugural Amundsen Omega3 South Pole Race.

The team traversed the 473.6 miles suffering frostbite, infected blisters, dramatic weight-loss, pneumonia and exhaustion and came second only to a pair of Norwegians (over 20 hours ).

In July 2008 Cracknell competed in the European Triathlon Championships for GBR for his age group and in November 2009 he took part in the New York Marathon.

The BBC aired a 5 x 1-hour, prime-time Sunday night series of the adventure, On Thin Ice (Twofour), in June–July 2009.

The series was accompanied by a self-penned book of the race, Race to the Pole (MacMillan).

In April 2009, James completed the 125-mile non-stop Devizes to Westminster Canoe Marathon in a two-man racing K2 kayak with canoe partner Bernie Shosbree.

In August 2009 Cracknell attempted to break the non-stop Land's End to John O'Groats mixed tandem world record along with Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Romero.

The pair got just past Johnstone Bridge in Scotland before being forced to stop due to problems with Romero's knees.

They were on course to break the record by over three hours.

The attempt was to launch the 2010 Ride Across Britain that Cracknell's company organised

In April 2010 Cracknell became the highest placed Briton ever in the 25-year history of the Marathon des Sables, finishing 12th.

His exploits were filmed for a Discovery Channel documentary The Toughest Race on Earth to be aired in October 2010.

This highest ever placing was beaten in 2013 by another Briton, Danny Kendall who finished 10th.

Six months after his cycling accident which damaged his frontal lobe (see below), Cracknell competed in the Yukon Arctic Ultra.