Katherine Grainger

At the 2009 World Championships in Poznan, Grainger, called on all her experience to finish a comfortable second behind Belarus' Ekaterina Karsten-Khodotovitch in the women’s single scull.

Grainger was selected in the women's quadruple scull for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and won her third Olympic silver medal.

Grainger took up rowing at Edinburgh University in 1993 and made such good progress she was awarded the Eva Bailey Trophy as their most outstanding female athlete in 1996 and again in 1997.  Her international rowing career took off in 1997 when she paired with Francesca Zino from Cambridge University and won the gold medal at the World U23 Championships, setting a new record for the event. On their return home, they raced for seats in the senior eight and went on to compete in the World Championships where they won bronze and became the first women's eight ever to win a World Championship medal.

In 1999, Grainger raced in the quad, finishing seventh at the World Championships and the following year won silver with the quad at her first Olympic Games – Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

In 2003 Grainger's partnership with Cath Bishop in the pair resulted in her first World title when they won gold at the World Championships in Milan in dramatic fashion, storming through the field from fourth  to first in the last 600 metres and toppling the reigning World and Olympic Champions from Romania.

The victory was a great breakthrough for British rowing and hopes were high that they could add Olympic gold at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games However, throughout the 2004 season they could not defeat the experienced Romanians. Despite an unimpressive performance in the heats, the British pair made the Olympic final and although they could not catch the Romanians, their traditional mid–course surge took them from fourth to second place and a superb silver medal.

Grainger's versatility has contributed to her success, confidently moving from sculling silver in Sydney to a sweep silver in Athens and following the retirement of Cath Bishop she moved back to the quadruple scull in 2005 after winning the singles title at the 2005 GB Rowing Senior Trials. The quad enjoyed a successful season, winning gold in the World Cups at Eton and Munich and culminating in a hard fought victory at the World Championships in Japan in September.

At the 2006 World Championships the women's quadruple scull fought an intense battle with Russia and were just beaten to the line in the dying metres of the race to take silver. In a strange twist of fate, their Russian conquerors later fell foul of a drugs test and the British women's quartet were restored, in February 2007, as rightful World Champions once more.

In 2007 she medalled at each of the World Cups and won the overall quad title for the series. The quad also won gold at the World Championships in Munich.

Born in Glasgow, Grainger now lives near Marlow although she travels home to Scotland whenever possible. With a degree and Masters in Law already under her belt, she is now studying homicide for a PhD.

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Last Updated September 2009