People have to be ‘very brave’ to swim in Thames, Olympic rower says
An Olympic rower and gold medal winner has said people have to be “very brave” to swim in the Thames after she was honoured for her achievements at Buckingham Palace.
Imogen Grant, 29, was made an MBE at the royal residence during an investiture ceremony on Friday for “services to rowing”.
Speaking after the ceremony, Ms Grant, who is also a doctor, joined fellow Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave in his recent call for urgent action on pollution in the Thames.
Sir Steve delivered a letter to the Environment Department (Defra) on Tuesday in which he demanded that Thames Water “end pollution for profit”, adding: “We should not have to worry about being ill whenever we train or compete on our rivers, but the reality is that water companies continue to pump raw sewage into our rivers, turning what should be a natural lifeline into an open sewer.”
Ms Grant, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, said: “I fully support everything that was said in the letter.
“The number of sewage spills hasn’t changed for the last two years and people are getting ill, and if we don’t conserve our blue spaces, our green spaces, we’re going to lose them.”
Asked whether she thought the Thames has become unusable by the public, Ms Grant said: “I think you have to be a very brave person to swim in it.”
Ms Grant, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Games, added she has started training for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
She said: “It feels like I’m working two full-time jobs a little bit.
“But I just keep coming back to the fact that I just love rowing, so getting to do it is such an honour.”
Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell was also honoured at the palace on Friday.
Ms Powell, who won three Oscars for her work in Shakespeare in Love (1998), The Aviator (2004) and The Young Victoria (2009), is also behind the looks of Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen and Rachel Zegler’s Snow White in the Disney live-action remake of their eponymous classic.
Speaking after the investiture ceremony, Ms Powell said she and the Princess Royal, who hosted the event, spoke about her career in the industry spanning more than four decades.
She said: “We did talk about my choice of costume design and work in film and theatre as a career, and if I had known whether that’s what I always wanted to do, and I think I probably had.
“It’s all I’ve known.”
Ms Powell, 64, was made a CBE in the New Year Honours list for “services to costume design”.
Other works of hers include Leonardo Dicaprio’s looks as fraudulent trader Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and period costumes worn by Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in The Favourite (2018) by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Asked if she had a favourite movie she has worked on, she replied: “It’s very, very difficult to ask about a favourite film.
“It’s like asking someone to pick their favourite child.
“I’ve really worked on so many that I’ve enjoyed and loved and that I’m proud of, so I’d never want to pick out one.”
