One of Team GB’s greatest athletes, Dame Katherine Grainger, has become the first female chair of the British Olympic Association in its 119-year history. Grainger, who is the only British woman to win medals at five Olympic Games, beat the BOA’s vice-chair, Annamarie Phelps, in a vote of the organisation’s 46 members on Thursday. She will take over from Hugh Robertson, who has helped lead the organisation since 2012.
It is the latest step in the stellar career of the 49-year-old from Glasgow that began at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and led to one gold and four silvers before she retired from rowing in 2016. Grainger then moved into sports administration as chair at UK Sport, where she relaxed the organisation’s controversial “No Compromise” approach, which had led to some smaller sports, such as wheelchair rugby and badminton, losing all their funding after the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“It is a huge honour to be elected chair of the BOA as the Olympics has been central to my life for nearly 30 years,” said Grainger, who will join the BOA early in the new year after completing her second and final term with UK Sport.
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“As an athlete I felt first-hand the incredible influence and impact sport has on people’s lives. During my time as chair of UK Sport, I have learned the power of collaboration as part of this impressive ecosystem that enables Olympic sport to flourish in the UK, and so I look forward to embarking on this next chapter with the BOA.”
Grainger’s appointment was welcomed by the BOA chief executive, Andy Anson, who said: “Katherine is an esteemed figure in high-performance sport, recognised in the British sporting community as a steadfast leader as well as one of our greatest ever Olympians. We are looking forward to working with her in the buildup to and during Milano-Cortina 2026 and Los Angeles 2028.”
