James Cracknell is one of Britain’s most successful athletes of all time, with two Olympic Gold medals and six World Championship titles.
His Olympic rowing finals – in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 – were epic battles, won by inches. But it is since retiring from his 13 year international career that James has distinguished himself as a very special sportsman.
Unwilling to get a ‘proper job’ in 2005, James teamed up with TV adventurer Ben Fogle to race across The Atlantic. Despite their ocean-rowing inexperience, the pair were first to arrive in Antigua. The experience was captured by the BBC in the documentary series ‘Through Hell and High Water’.
In 2008 James came up with the idea of pushing himself to his limits once again for charity, this time in collaboration with Sport Relief. Entirely under his own steam, James rowed The Channel; cycled down through France and Spain and finally swam The Strait of Gibraltar, accompanied by comedian David Walliams.
In December 2008 James attempted his toughest challenge yet when he set off with former team-mate Ben Fogle and Dr. Ed Coats in a race to the South Pole. Suffering frost-bite, infected blisters, dramatic weight-loss, pneumonia and exhaustion, the team finished second only to a pair of Norwegian polar experts. The adventure was filmed by the BBC – ‘On Thin Ice’.
Most recently, James suffered a major head injury when he was thrown off his bike in America whilst filming a TV show for the Discovery Channel. James has held a ten-year post as a Daily Telegraph journalist. He was the Olympic presenter for ITV News at Ten in Bejing; hosted Channel 4’s Red Bull Air Race and ITV1’s British Superbikes.