Katherine Grainger  Dame Katherine Jane Grainger (born 12 November 1975) is a British former rower and current chair of UK Sport. With five Olympic medals she is Great Britain's most decorated female Olympian. She is a 2012 Summer Olympics gold medallist, four-time Olympic silver medallist and six-time World Champion. She served as Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University between 2015 and 2020, and is currently Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. Grainger first won silver at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in the woman's quadruple sculls. In Athens in 2004, she won silver in the coxless pairs. In Beijing 2008 she won her third silver, again in the quadruple sculls. At the London Olympics 2012, Anna Watkins and Grainger broke the Olympic record as they qualified for the double sculls final, before winning the gold medal. Grainger won a silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games 2016 with Victoria Thornley, after a two-year break from the sport. Grainger has won eight medals at the World Championship between 1997 and 2011. Grainger's family moved to Netherley, Aberdeenshire. She attended Bearsden Academy in East Dunbartonshire near Glasgow. Grainger holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Edinburgh, a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Medical Law and Medical Ethics from the University of Glasgow, and a Doctor of Philosophy in law from King's College London. Her doctoral research was supervised by Elaine Player and Ben Bowling. In July 2013 King's made Grainger a fellow. She remarked, "Without planning it both my Olympic career and my PhD have met at the same time and the culmination for both is 2012 – not by design." Grainger took up rowing at the University of Edinburgh in 1993 and represents Edinburgh's St Andrew Boat Club and/or Marlow Rowing Club in rowing events. She trained on the River Dee. She first won silver at Sydney in 2000 in the woman's quadruple sculls with Guin Batten, Gillian Lindsay and Miriam Batten losing to a German team. Four years later in Athens in 2004, she won silver again when she took part in the coxless pairs with Cath Bishop, losing to Georgeta Damian and Viorica Susanu of Romania. She returned to the quadruple sculls in Beijing 2008, when she won her third silver with Annabel Vernon, Debbie Flood and Frances Houghton, narrowly losing to China after taking the lead for some of the race.