Sir Steve Redgrave to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Five times Olympic Gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave will be honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award this Thursday 22 December at BBC Sports Personality of the Year (BBC One from 8pm). The award will recognise Redgrave’s huge contribution to rowing, his long and extraordinary career in competitive sport and his ongoing commitment to promoting sport and good causes in the UK.

As well as five Olympic golds, Redgrave also holds nine World Championship titles. Together with partner Matthew Pinsent he was the holder of the world record in coxless pairs from 1994 until 2002 and still retains the Olympic record, set in Atlanta in 1996. 

Already established as the world's most outstanding rower of all time after his Atlanta victory, Redgrave announced in 1997 that he had decided to carry on competing through to the Millennium Games in Sydney where he won a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal - a feat which confirmed him as one of the greatest athletes in Olympic history and for which he was awarded a Knighthood in 2001. 

Since retiring from competitive sport his Steve Redgrave Fund has raised over £6m for charity, and he played a key role in helping London to win the bid to host the Olympics in 2012. Redgrave is now committed to ensuring the event provides a lasting legacy for sport in the future as well as promoting the best of present-day Britain around the world in the run up to London 2012.

Previous winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award include David Beckham (2010), Seve Ballesteros (2009), Sir Bobby Charlton (2008), Sir Bobby Robson (2007), Bjorn Borg (2006), Pele (2005), Sir Ian Botham (2004), Martina Navratilova (2003), George Best (2002) and Sir Alex Ferguson (2001).

The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates those who have made a significant contribution to sport and demonstrable success in their relevant sport throughout their careers. The award is the gift of the BBC. 

For further information about BBC Sports Personality of the Year, please see www.bbc.co.uk/sportspersonality. 

(Source : BBC Press Release)