Olympic rowing legend Steve Redgrave to visit Sunderland for talk at The Fire Station

An Audience with Sir Steve Redgrave is at The Fire Station on Saturday, April 15.

Steve won gold medals at successive Olympics between 1984 and 2000. He also won nine World Rowing Championship golds and three Commonwealth Games golds, despite being diagnosed with colitis in 1992 and diabetes in 1997.

In addition to his knighthood, he was BBC Personality of the Year 2000 and has 13 honorary doctorates from UK universities, including Durham.

As well as talking about sporting glory, Steve will discuss the impact of ill health and what leaving competitive sport at the highest level was like.

There are also stories about his involvement in organising the 2012 London Olympics, including his dealings with the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Sir Steve said: “I’ve not been to Sunderland before, but I’m very much looking forward to April 15.

“We did a similar short tour last year when we had a presenter host a question and answer session with me, and we’ll have a similar format in Sunderland.

“The audience will have the opportunity to ask me questions too.

“I’ll be talking about winning my gold medals and what I then went on to do – as soon as I retired in 2000 I became heavily involved in the bid for the Olympic Games in London in 2012 and then their delivery.

“I’ll also talk about the life of an elite sportsperson and how rowing changed from its amateur status to a professional sport during my time as a rower.

“People ask me where the motivation came from to continue for so long. The truth is that I knew as soon as I stopped I would have to find a proper job – and I really didn’t want to do that.”

Tamsin Austin, venue director, said: “We’re honoured to be hosting Sir Steve’s talk and giving a Wearside audience an opportunity to hear him talk about his remarkable career, the highs and lows of arguably the greatest Olympic athlete to have ever competed.”

Tickets are priced from £16.50 at www.thefirestation.org.uk.