James Cracknell

James Cracknell, OBE (born 5 May 1972) is an English rowing champion and double Olympic gold medallist. Cracknell is married to TV and radio presenter Beverley Turner; their son, Croyde, was born in 2004. In the New Year Honours List published 31 December 2004 he was created an OBE for services to Sport. He is also a trained Geography Teacher, as stated in an episode of BBC comedy quiz School's Out .

Biography

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. 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.

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.

On 4 March 2006 it was announced that his house had been broken into and his Olympic gold medals had been stolen, along with his wedding ring and a laptop computer containing 20,000 words of a new book and family photographs. [ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/04/ncrack04.xml Latest news, breaking news, current news, UK news, world news, celebrity news, politics news - Telegraph ] ] The gold medals have since been recovered.

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.

Presenting and Jounalism

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 also a sports feature writer for the Daily Telegraph, his column can be found online at telegraph.co.uk.

Charitable activity

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 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. [ [http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/latest/2008/03/08/david-walliams-and-james-cracknell-swim-12-mile-strait-of-gibraltar-in-4-hours-36-minutes-89520-20343807/] , 2008-03-08. Retrieved on 2008-03-13.] 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.

Achievements

*Olympic Medals: 2 Gold
*World Championship Medals: 6 Gold
*Junior World Championship Medals: 1 Gold

Olympic Games

*2004 – Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Steve Williams, Ed Coode)
*2000 – Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)

World Championships

*2003 — 4th, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
*2002 — Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
*2001 — Gold, Coxless Pair (with Matthew Pinsent)
*2001 — Gold, Coxed Pair (with Matthew Pinsent, Neil Chugani)
*1999 — Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Ed Coode, Steve Redgrave)
*1998 — Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)
*1997 — Gold, Coxless Four (with Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster, Steve Redgrave)
*1995 — 10th, Double Sculls
*1994 — 8th, Eight
*1993 — 6th, Eight
*1991 — 7th, Coxless Four (with John Garrett, Gavin Stewart, James Walker)

Junior World Championships

*1990 — Gold, Coxless Four
*1989 — 10th, Coxed Pair

tyles and Honours

* Mr James Cracknell (1972–2001)
* Mr James Cracknell MBE (2001–2004)
* Mr James Cracknell OBE (2004–)

Public Appearances

* 12 September 2008 - Selafield Achievement Awards, Whitehaven, Cumbria

References

External links

* [http://80.83.47.230/ndisplaypeople.fwx?no_id=2215 Profile on RowingOne]
* [http://www.atlanticrowingrace.co.uk/ Atlantic Rowing Race]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?menuId=1087&menuItemId=7248&view=COLUMNIST&grid=F7&targetRule=10 "James Cracknell's column archive".] Telegraph.co.uk

Persondata
NAME= Cracknell, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Olympic gold medalist
DATE OF BIRTH=5 May 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH=England
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=