A graduate of Oxford Brookes University, Steve Williams first appeared on the international rowing scene as a member of the British coxless pair in 1998 and reached the World Championship final in that event in his first two years on the national team. He was overlooked by the selectors for a place at the 2000 Olympics but was instead chosen for the World Championships, which is held only for non-Olympic classes in the year of an Olympic Games, and won his first world title as part of the coxed four. In the re-shuffle of the team following Sydney, Williams was placed in the coxed four and the newly formed crew justified the faith given to them by winning the World Championship at their first attempt in 2001. The four were silver medal winners in 2002 and 2003 but in early 2004 the crew was completely revamped to allow the inclusion of Olympic champions Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell with only Williams retaining his seat, After a summer blighted by illness and injury the quartet recovered to win Olympic gold in Athens. In 2005 the four was once again overhauled and again it was Williams who was the only member to retain his place in the crew. The change of personnel seemed to have little effect and world titles followed in both 2005 and 2006. The quartet suffered a surprise defeat in the 2007 World Championship but rebounded to retain their Olympic title in Beijing. After taking a year away from the water Williams decided to retire from competition but retained an adventurous spirit. During 2011 he took part in an expedition to raise money for charity which consisted of successful attempts to ski to the North Pole then climb to the summit of Mount Everest, joining Italy’s Manuela Di Centa as the only two Olympic champions to reach the world’s highest peak.
Great Britain