Sure can compare rowing, with the support of a hand picked team and targetting a category where the best rowers may not always be present to cycling hwere you cannot duck any challenge.
How is that different to Hoy not being selected for the individual sprint this year ahead of Kenny? The cycling team felt that Kenny gave them a better chance of winning gold against the best sprinters.
I like Redgrave and clearly achievement is immense in terms of commitment, sacrifice etc - but the 16 year thing doesn't wash with me; schedule not as intense.
The best rowers row single sculls, he never did. Just my opionion.
The single sculling thing is completely wrong. They're different disciplines of the same sport and the crew selections are down to the coaches as part of the 4 year cycle towards each Olympics (during which they compete in World Championships every year so hardly a case of the schedule not being as intense). I suspect both of them pretty much lived a lifestyle of training several hours a day for 6/7 days a week during their careers.
Just found this on Redgrave's Wiki page too, which I'd forgotten about. "His primary strength was in sweep oared rowing, where he has the distinction of being one of the few oarsmen to have won Olympic Gold rowing both bowside and strokeside (starboard and port)."
As someone who rowed at a very low standard at University I can't describe how difficult this is to do. It's the equivalent to asking someone to switch hands in tennis, or batting sides in cricket, midway through their careers and still compete at the same level.
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