Best use of talent in sports history

[sandycove]

Under Burrito rules, it must be:

British Rower Sir Steve Redgrave.

Possibly the greatest Olympic athlete ever, regardless of sport. Five (!) successive Olympic gold medals. And a Bronze.

In his last Olympics in Sydney, he defeated sons of fathers he out-rowed the first time in Los Angeles.

He added 9 World Championships golds from 1986 to 1999 and at least 13 victories at the Henley Royal Regatta and one World Indoor Rowing Championship.

And he threw in a national championship on the British bobsled team, for good measure.

He did all this in spite of a severe learning disability (dyslexia), ulcerative colitis and diabetes, which would leave him, literally, breathless in competition.

He has completed at least three London Marathons recently, setting a record raising some £2 million for charity, all on his own. And he was a key member of the British national committee that is bringing the Olympics to London.