With the Olympics just round the corner, retired English rower Steve Redgrave tells us about the UK's passion for sport and his personal involvement in the 2012 Games in this Foreign Office film which is a part of the series See Britain through my eyes.
This is extensive listening, upwards of six minutes and even strong intermediate students may find it difficult to understand in detail what Steve Redgrave says. That's the reason why the task students are given is quite general.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and number the topics below in the order they are mentioned by Steve Redgrave.
The hard training sessions
Britain changing their mentality
The first race
Confidence in the success of the games
How it all started
His ancestors
Steve being asked to help out in the Olympic bid
The British tradition of inventing sports
You can read the transcript here.
The river has always been part of our society here.
My father and my father's father, my grandfather, had all been brought up in the area.
But nobody got on the river before I did.
Certainly on a morning like this, it's sort of so idyllic. It's just fantastic.
This is how I started sort of 30 years ago.
I just loved it.
It was sort of escapism in some ways.
It's just magical.
That's nice rhythm, that's nice control.
I went to a school just on the other side of Marlow.
And the Head of the English Department, a guy called Francis Smith, he was actually captain of Marlow Rowing Club.
And he just asked a few individuals if they would like to give rowing a go.
And I thought, "Well, getting out of school and going along the river during school time, that seems pretty sensible."
And after a couple of months Francis said, "Well, would you like to go and do a race?"
And I thought, "Oh a race! That sounds, that's pretty fun."
And we went down to Bristol and did a race down there, not really expecting anything, and we ended up winning it.
I suppose that sort of shaped my career in some ways, from those first few months and that first race.
Success breeds success.
Your dreams start getting built by other people's views.
And in some ways that was a great motivating factor as being a youngster that time.
But it also had its downfalls as well because you have your sort of belief that, "Oh, one day I am gonna be World Champion."
"I wonder which year that is gonna be."
And the fact is that you have to make it happen.
So, we would be training three, sometimes four training sessions in a day.
That's 20 kilometers a training session.
And that's 49 weeks a year.
So, when you're plowing up and down the river your feeling is, "This is horrible."
I don't wanna be doing this.
But I've gotta do this for the race that we're going.
United States, Slovenia, Great Britain.
Most of the sports that are around have been started by Brits.
We start it off then everybody picks it up, and then does it better than we do.
I think in some ways British people have had a problem over a long period of time and I'm thinking, "Oh no, we're British we've got to do it as very much amateurs!" and it was about having a good fight.
But it wasn't about winning.
But I think over the last few decades, that has slowly changed.
It's not a bad thing to be British and to be a winner.
That's a good thing.
We welcome Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch who is presenting Mr. Steve Redgrave, OBE with a gold Olympic pin to acknowledge his fifth Gold Medal, a record.
I think we've become very happy within our own skins because it's not embarrassing to go out and win races or even to say that you're the best in the field in this particular area.
And I think we've been able to accept that as a nation in some ways.
And certainly moving towards 2012 and having the greatest sporting event coming to our country, there is an expectation that we don't just want to put on a fantastic Games.
But we want our athletes to do well as well and to win some gold medals.
I was asked to be helping out on the bid process.
And I didn't even have to give it a thought.
It was something of being able to hand something down to the next generation.
That's the Aquatic over there.
When the bid was suggested in the UK, that we were going to bid for the games there were people saying, "No, we're never gonna get it."
In less than three years they'll be opening doors, people will be sitting in these seats, watching the athletes doing their bit down there.
I just find that incredible in some ways, of so many people who put so much effort into it.
But it's gonna happen, it's gonna succeed and it's gonna be really very, very special to be here.
I'd really love to be able to compete in these games.
As a 50 - year - old, I think I'd be probably struggling a little bit but it'll certainly be a very proud day from those humble beginnings of getting out in a boat to seeing the opening ceremony, seeing the flame lit.
I'm gonna be one proud British guy.
There's no doubt about that.
Key:
1 His ancestors
2 How it all started
3 The first race
4 The hard training sessions
5 The British tradition of inventing sports
6 Britain changing their mentality
7 Steve being asked to help out in the Olympic bid
8 Confidence in the success of the games
