I’ve already spoken to a number of MPs outside London who’ve told me ‘We’re

I’ve already spoken to a number of MPs outside London who’ve told me, ‘We’re really for the Olympics. It’s not in our area, but we think we can host one of the countries that will train there, and that will benefit our community’.” He pauses and laughs to himself. “God, I’m beginning to sound like a politician, aren’t I?”Redgrave has always been disinclined to become embroiled in sports politics. After that momentous morning in Sydney on 23 September 2000, he had no desire in his retirement to emulate another of sport’s respected figures, Trevor Brooking, former chairman of Sport England, but slowly he has succumbed to the inevitable invitations from those, like the BOA, seeking an iconic figurehead.As Britain’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony of more than one Olympics, he has been thrust into a similar role here. Should a London bid win government backing, he would relish the opportunity to spread the word about the case for London Not that he needs a job He still gives lucrative motivational talks He has his own leisure clothing concern.

“Obviously, what I’ve achieved means something to other people,” he says. “When I talk about Olympic matters it carries a lot of weight. So, if I say ‘It would be fantastic to have the Games in London’, people listen to me. If a politician or an official in a suit says that, people tend to dismiss it.”He is upbeat and rarely cynical about his country, disputing the perception that Britain’s only successful government department would be a Ministry of Misadventure. “We’ve got a tremendous history of putting on excellent sporting events, including the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Euro 96 and many world championships in individual sports,” declares the character who refused to let diabetes and colitis end his career prematurely. “A lot of IOC members have tremendous respect for what Manchester achieved. London can do it, too.”He explains: “Some commentators are saying ‘Why are the Government dragging their feet?’ But I’m quite happy that they’re taking their time because that means that they’re not taking it lightly.

Hopefully they will go for it, because it would be of huge benefit short-term and long-term for the country, and throw their full weight behind the bid. Certain politicians have been saying ‘Oh, you’d be taking the money away from health and eduction’, but that would never happen. Yes, it’s a huge amount of money, but what hasn’t been spoken about is the money that will come back in. Apart from anything else there’s a very big grant given by the IOC which comes from the sponsors There are many hidden spin-offs.

Just imagine what staging the Games would do to encourage health and fitness in adults and children.”To some, there may have been something apposite about the fact that the Iron Man should have held court on Tuesday in a Commons committee room named after the Iron Lady For Redgrave it was impossible to overlook the irony. “Here I was, arguing the case for Britain bidding for an Olympics, in a room named after the woman who had effectively prevented me going to what would have been my first Games,” he declares wryly. “It was a bit strange.”Redgrave missed out on Moscow in 1980, when he was a mere stripling of 18. The then Premier Margaret Thatcher was strident in her view that Britain should not compete because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The amateur rowing association decided to go anyway, but because BOA funds were affected by some commercial sponsors pulling out, the sport had to reduce its complement of participants. Redgrave and his fellow quadruple sculls crew members missed the cut It still grates. He believes the current call from the government for the England cricket team to boycott next month’s World Cup against Zimbabwe in Harare is similarly misguided.”This is exactly the same issue as Moscow,” he maintains.