| Olympic medal record | ||
Competitor for  United
Kingdom
 |
||
|---|---|---|
| Men's Rowing | ||
| Gold | 2000 Sydney | Coxless Four |
| Gold | 2004 Athens | Coxless Four |
James Cracknell, OBE (born 5 May 1972) is a British rowing champion and double Olympic gold medalist and adventurer. Cracknell is married to TV and radio presenter Beverley Turner; they have two children: a son, Croyde (born in 2004), and a daughter, Kiki (born in 2009).[1] In the New Year Honours List, 2004, he was appointed OBE for services to sport. He is also a trained geography teacher, as stated in an episode of BBC comedy quiz School's Out.
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James Cracknell began rowing whilst attending 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 with a Bachelor of Science in Human Geography in 1993. [2] 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 tonsilitis 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 rowing World 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 the quest for gold.
With Redgrave then having retired, Cracknell swapped from rowing on strokeside to bowside in order 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.
He came second 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.[1]
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.[1]
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.[3] The gold medals were subsequently recovered by a neighbor's dog where the thief had discarded them. The thief, Mark Murphy, 30, was caught and jailed.[4]
He ran the London Marathon on 23 April 2006, in a time of 3 hours, finishing over an hour ahead of his rowing team mate Matthew Pinsent.
In January 2008 James set up Threshold Sports with Julian Mack and Charlie Beauchamp.
In December 2008 he set off yet again with former team-mate 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 frost-bite, infected blisters, dramatic weight-loss, pneumonia and exhaustion and came second only to a pair of Norwegians. The BBC are airing a 5 x 1 hour, prime-time Sunday night series of the adventure, ‘On Thin Ice’(TwoFour), in June/July 2009. The series is accompanied by a self-penned book of the race, Race to the Pole (MacMillan).[1]
In July 2008 James competed in the European Triathlon Championships for GBR for his age group and in November 2009 James will take part in the New York Marathon.
In August 2009 James 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 Rebecca's knees. They were on course to break the record by over three hours [5]. The attempt was to launch the 2010 Ride Across Britain that James' company Threshold Sports are organising.
He now presents sport on ITV and Channel 4. He covered The Boat Race 2007 with Mark Durden Smith for ITV and is the presenter of ITV's coverage of the British Superbike Championship. He is also the main presenter of Channel 4's Red Bull Air Race World Series coverage. He is a contracted columnist with the Daily Telegraph writing about various topics including sport, motoring, gardening, cookery and more Daily Telegraph, his column can be found online at telegraph.co.uk.
From 27 February 2008 James Cracknell covered over 1,400 miles from the UK to Africa in 10 days, rowing, cycling and swimming. He rowed from Dover, England to Cap Gris Nez, France, then cycled to Tarifa, Spain, and finally swam across the Straits of Gibraltar from Tarifa to Punta de Cires, Morocco. He asked the comedian David Walliams to join him for the final part of his journey because of his previous experience in swimming the English Channel.[6] The money raised by the challenge goes towards the BBC's Sport Relief charity, with highlights of the action broadcast on 14 March. He is to be the special guest at The WiG GiG which aims to raise £10,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
In January 2009, James took part in the Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race with his TV Presenter friend Ben Fogle and Dr Ed Coats as members of Team QinetiQ,[7] finishing in second, 20 hours behind the winning Norwegian team.[8] The race and the reasons behind was broadcast on BBC Television during summer 2009 in the series On Thin Ice. The trio raised funds for the Children's medical research charity Sparks, chosen as the charity partner in memory of Cracknell's niece, Eva, who died at six days old after suffering oxygen deprivation at birth.[9]
On Saturday 3 October 2009, James Cracknell and Ben Fogle started an epic 60 hour (estimated) journey from Edinburgh to London riding a rickshaw in support of SSAFA. They aimed to arrive in time for the Pride of Britain Awards ceremony on Monday 5 October 2009.[10] They had to endure storm force gales in Scotland and Northumberland on their first day of the 450 mile ride.[11] Early on the last day they made a stop at Etonbury Middle School in Arlesey, off the A1 road to London, where about 100 children welcomed them and to wave them on their way.[12]
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