Steve Williams (rower) - International Career

International Career

Williams made his full international debut in 1998 at the age of 22. He partnered Fred Scarlett in the coxless pair, and came a creditable sixth in his first world championships. A year later he partnered Simon Dennis in the same event, this time finishing fifth. In 2000 both Scarlett and Dennis would win seats in the Eight for the Olympics in Sydney, but Williams just missed out, and instead was part of a coxed four which won a gold medal at the World Championships in Zagreb for non-Olympic events. The following year he was again world champion, this time in the coxless four, and won the silver medal in the same discipline in both 2002 and 2003.

With Matthew Pinsent, James Cracknell and Ed Coode, Williams won Olympic gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens in the men's coxless four.

Williams was the only member of the 2004 Olympic crew to continue racing for the 2005 season, joining Alex Partridge, Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge in the coxless four, again winning at the World Championships that year and in 2006, before coming a disappointing fourth at the 2007 world championships. In 2008, Partridge was replaced by Cambridge Blue Tom James, and despite an injury torn season, the quartet became Olympic Champions, defeating the Australian boat by 1.28s on the day dubbed 'Super Saturday' by the media, owing to the large GB medal haul. The Australians had led for much of the race, before an epic push by the British boat overhauled them in the last 400m.