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James Cracknell is one of Britain’s most successful athletes of all time. He has won two Olympic Golds and six World Championship titles. His Olympic rowing finals in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 were epic battles, won by inches. They have gone down in history as two of the most watched sporting contests.
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. They set off in a 7m boat to race across The Atlantic. Despite their ocean rowing inexperience, coming second was never an option for James. After 49 torturous days at sea, the pair were first to arrive in Antigua. On their return, James and Ben wrote the critically acclaimed The Crossing and the BBC transmitted RTS award winning documentary series Through Hell and High Water.
But the Atlantic Rowing Race had also raised funds for Children in Need. At the start of 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. He was accompanied by comedian David Walliams. It took him a mere ten days to cover just under 1500 miles and raise 340,000 pounds.
By the end of the year, he was ready for another challenge and it proved to be his toughest yet. In December 2008 he set off with former team mate Ben Fogle and Dr. Ed Coats (the winner of a nationwide search) to take part in the inaugural Amundsen Omega3 South Pole Race. Suffering frost bite, infected blisters, dramatic weight loss, pneumonia and exhaustion, the team traversed the 473.6 miles. They came in second to a pair of Norwegian polar experts. The BBC showed a 6 x 1 hour, prime time Sunday night series of the adventure in summer 2009 ‘On Thin Ice’. The show proved so popular it will be repeated in the winter. The series was accompanied by a self-penned book of the race, Race to the Pole.
In August 2009, James attempted to break the Land’s End to John O’Groats mixed tandem world record. This was alongside Olympian Rebecca Romero. Unfortunately the duo were stopped in their tracks in Johnstonbridge in Scotland, having cycled 500 miles in 30 hours and being well on course to the break the record, due to medical advice for Rebecca. The pair were devastated not to reach John O’Groats. The attempt acted as a curtain raiser to the Deloitte Ride Across Britain in 2010 www.rideacrossbritain.com
Of course, James has also managed to fit in a whole host of other physical feats. An incredible sub three hour marathon (2008) The London to Paris bike ride (2008) The New Zealand Coast to Coast race (2007) and The Mark Webber Challenge (2006). James also set a new world record for paddling The Channel on a surf-board (2005). He qualified to represent Great Britain in Triathlon competing at the 2009 European Championships for his age group.
In 2009 he has also canoed the historical Devizes to Westminster race cycled in The Tour de France’s Etape, rode a rickshaw from Edinburgh to London with Ben Fogle.
During an attempt in 2010 to travel from LA to New York, James was knocked off his bicycle in Arizona by a petrol tanker. He sustained a serious brain injury that put him in a coma for 10 days. The accident left him with a personality disorder and Epilepsy. James wrote a book about how his life had changed before and after the collision called Touching Distance.
It wasn’t long before James was up and running again and he took on the 2011 Marathon de Sables.
2021 saw James become a contestant in Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins.
His more sedate activities include a ten year post as a Daily Telegraph journalist. James was the Olympic presenter for ITV News at Ten in Bejing. He hosted Channel 4’s red Bull Air Race and ITV 1’s British Superbikes.
James is in demand as a motivational corporate speaker
