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Redgrave vague on retirement plans
ATTENTION - CHANGES DATELINE, ADDS fresh quotes /// SYDNEY, Sept 24 (AFP) - Britain's serial Olympic gold medallist Steven Redgrave was vague Sunday on whether he will quit rowing, refusing to commit himself to another Olympic campaign but also refusing to rule it out. Britain's greatest Olympian completed a historic fifth successive Games triumph when he led the coxless four - also comprising Matthew Pinsent, Tim Foster and James Cracknell - to rowing glory in Sydney on Saturday. He is the only endurance athlete to win golds in five consecutive Games in a gilt run that began in Los Angeles in 1984. Only Hungarian Aladar Gerevich, in the far less physically demanding sport of fencing, has surpassed his achievement with six golds between 1932 and 1960. British tabloid the News of the World quoted him as saying it was all over. "That's it for me. It's over. This was my defining moment," he reportedly said. "I don't even think I'll go out in a boat any more. It's time to find something else to do." Asked in a press conference here whether he had raced his last race he said firmly: "No". Pushed on whether his Olympic career was over he replied: "No. I don't think so. I'm sure there is something I'll be doing within the Olympic movement. It may not be rowing. "If I don't carry on, there'll be a big gulf to be filled. On the other hand I feel like I've been there, done that. There are other things to do." He was far more committal after winning his fourth gold medal in 1996 in Atlanta, saying "Anyone who sees me go anywhere near a boat again, ever, you've got my permission to shoot me". He subsequently reconsidered that decision but he will be 42 when Athens stages the Games in 2004.
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