Day 100 and Steve ready to join Rich!

21st March 2011

100 days have passed on former Welsh international flanker Richard Parks’ world first 737 Challenge.

So far during his epic 7-month race to climb the highest summits on each of the world’s continents and stand on all 3 poles, Richard has climbed a whopping total of 22,653 metres and 74,260 feet whilst conquering Mount Vinson, Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Carstensz Pyramid. He’s battled the last 60 miles to the South Pole in temperatures down to -40 and now he enters the most gruelling part of his world first expedition: The North Pole and Mount Everest back to back.

Luckily for Richard, he’ll be joined on these two monumental legs by a very special person. The second “Great Briton” to join Richard on his challenge is two times Olympic gold medallist Steve Williams OBE. Next week, they will set off together to venture the last degree north, 105km to The Geographic North Pole. Combating one of the most hostile environments on earth, they must negotiate the hazardous and changeable polar ice cap before climbing the highest mountain on earth.

Steve Williams is an athlete who knows all about facing adversity. In a ten-year career at the top of one of the most demanding sports, Steve has had to win the hard way. As a proudly self-professed ‘normal guy’ he has none of the natural physical attributes an Olympic rower ‘should’ have and has had more than his fair share of set-backs. Getting to and staying at the top has not been easy.

Steve’s Olympic dreams were almost derailed just as he started when in 2000 he missed out on selection for the British Olympic rowing team for Sydney. Going instead as a ‘travelling spare’ his job was to carry the oars and watch from the riverbank. As humbling and painful as this experience was for Steve it was also his breakthrough as it proved to be a journey of self-discovery that he has never forgotten and a critical part of his learning how to win. Steve went on to win four World Championship titles and those two amazing Olympic gold medals. The first alongside Pinsent, Cracknell and Coode in Athens - winning gold by a dramatic 0.08 of a second or, as the Daily Mail reported, “the length of a Crunchie bar”. The second, alongside Hodge, Reed and James in Beijing in 2008.

Steve was awarded an OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours. On 22 January 2010 he announced his retirement from rowing.

Now Steve joins Richard for a new challenge with a different motivation and together they will need to use every drop of experience they have learned from their polar training in Greenland and time spent on Cho Oyu in the Himalayas to face the adversities that lie ahead. There is no gold medal to hold at the end, but the reward will be as every bit treasured.

737 Challenge caught up with Steve for a special Q&A to find out why he joined forces with Richard Parks and how climbing Everest has always been a childhood dream. CLICK BELOW to read our exclusive MEET STEVE WILLIAMS FEATURE.