I won gold medals in Olympics featuring Lennox Lewis, Linford Christie and Carl Lewis but runner who won 122 straight races blew my mind
Sir Steve Redgrave inspired many, many people and left plenty of us blown away by Olympic achievements.
Five gold medals across five different games is an astonishing feat - and is unquestionably one of Britain’s greatest ever Olympians.
But who does a multiple goal medalist look up too? Who of their contemporaries left them awestruck?
Redgrave featured in Olympic Games from 1984 through to 2000, meaning he competed alongside some absolute icons.
Carl Lewis won an astonishing nine golds across Los Angeles in 1984, Seoul in 1988, and Barcelona in 1992.
Lennox Lewis fought at two Olympics, deciding not to turn pro after 1984 so he could win a gold four years later.
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Then you have likes of Linford Christie who won 100m gold for Team GB in 1992 and Michael Johnson who stole the show in 1996 and Ian Thorpe, who won three golds in 2000.
However, Redgrave’s inspiration was Edwin Moses - the track athlete who had an astonishing record in the 400m hurdles.
Between 1977 and 1987, Moses won 107 consecutive finals (122 consecutive races) and broke the world record four times.
It was that unbeaten record that left Redgrave in awe.
He told talkSPORT.com: “Edwin Moses was sort of an inspiration as well because when I rode with Matthew [Pinsent], we went four years without being beaten in any race.
“He did a lot more races than we did, but of just that domination of an event for so long is astonishing.”
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We all have an Olympic hero too, someone you watch on the TV and makes you want to go to the games.
For Redgrave that was Mark Spitz, the famed American swimmer who won nine gold medals - including seven at the 1972 Munich games.
“My hero in the Olympics was Mark Spitz,” Redgrave added. “You're going back a little bit, but from that he competed at two Olympics. I think he ended up winning nine gold medals over those two Olympics.
“When I was a 10-year-old, when I was just sort of getting into sport well before I found rowing, that was another four years later, of Mark winning seven gold medals at the Munich Games.
“Each one of those gold medals were won in a world record time. So not just to win the Olympics, not just to win seven gold medals, but to win in a world record time each time, sort of blew me away.
“That gave me the slight dream of trying to get to the Olympics, but not dreaming of multiple gold medals, but dreaming of maybe having the possibility of winning one medal.
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“Then when I found the sport of rowing, that was a process that felt like it may come alive.”
The Olympics are on talkSPORT this summer, and you can tune in via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com. Steve Redgrave is part of talkSPORT's all-star line up for the 2024 Games in Paris, with Kelly Holmes and Adam Gemili.