Exhausted Redgrave bows out after fourth gold
As Steve Redgrave slumped exhausted in his boat after becoming the most successful rower in Olympic history, he knew for certain that four golds was enough and retirement was the only option.

At 34, he reckons he is physically able to carry on rowing until the Sydney Olympics.

But it was the mental pressure from himself, his partner Matthew Pinsent and a British nation bereft of Olympic heroes that he could take no longer.

Since winning his first gold in 1984 in the coxed fours, the pressure had been inexorably building.

Redgrave almost quit after his first coxless pairs gold in Seoul but, rejuvenated by his pairing with a man nine years his junior, he went on to Barcelona for another gold.

Once he had three there was never any doubt that Redgrave, the dyslexic son of a builder, would try for a record-breaking four in Atlanta.

But he could not have guessed how this decision would dominate his every thought and word over the next four years.

Now that he has become only the fourth athlete, and the first rower, to win golds at four successive Games, Redgrave just wants to relax.

He will let all that tension and expectation trickle away and become a normal family man for the first time in his life.

"I have focused our whole lives on July 27 for four years and that is the first time in the Olympics I've done that," said Redgrave, holding his infant daughters Sophie and Natalie.

After he and Pinsent had arrived in Georgia poor performances on the water, coupled with aggravations over transport and living conditions which forced Redgrave to move out of the athletes' village into a hotel, increased the pressure on the pair to breaking point.

"It's been very difficult the last week or so," said Redgrave. "I've never known so much pressure from the media and ourselves. Yesterday we were very nervous."

The news of the bomb blast in downtown Atlanta that killed two people did not help their mood on Saturday but they managed to maintain their focus on the race to come.

They hoped to lead after the first 500 meters but led by a length early on from the Australian and French crews, an unexpected gift that the British pair took full advantage of.

They maintained their stranglehold on the race and, despite a late comeback by the Australians, Redgrave said he never thought they would be beaten. They won by half a length.

At the line Pinsent punched the air repeatedly in celebration but Redgrave looked totally exhausted.

"Physically, the race was not too hard, we could go faster. But it was the mental strains, the mental pressure. It's always the last race that really drains you," he said.

In the boatyard he greeted his coach German Juergen Grobler: "You're the greatest, Jurgen." "No, Steve," Grobler replied, "You're the greatest."

Before the Atlanta Games Redgrave had mused about continuing to Sydney but by the time he made land after his fourth gold this scenario was not an option.

"I've definitely had enough. This is it for me. If anyone sees me near a boat they can shoot me," Redgrave said.

This will no doubt come as relief to wife Anne, a former rower.

"I focused on this race not records. I've set out what I wanted to do and I've achieved it. Now I've got to decide what to do next, said Redgrave."

This story written by Reuters correspondents