When asked by BBC Olympic Breakfast for his thoughts on Wiggins being called the most successful Olympian, Redgrave said: “How can you argue with that? He’s a great guy, a great athlete and obviously he’s got more medals than me.
“So to me, that put him above me on achievement level.
“If I’d won the Tour de France a couple of weeks ago and then come and won one of my medals, I would have been expecting to be above him on that.
“He’s a great guy, absolutely outstanding achievement and he deserves all he gets. I think he’s going to get a lot more honours before the year is over.”
Redgrave has six Olympic medals; five gold and one bronze. Wiggins has seven, with four golds, one silvers and two bronze.
Yesterday, Wiggins told fans “it had to be gold or nothing,” modestly dismissing the idea of surpassing other great Olympians.
“What’s the point in having seven medals if they’re not the right colour?” he said. “The main thing is that it’s number four [golds], so I’ve got to carry on to Rio now and get number five.”
The debate over who should now be considered the lead the list of Olympic medallist is already causing controversy, with 64 per cent of Telegraph readers polled agreeing the honour ought to pass to Wiggins.
Andy Hunt, Team GB’s chef de mission, yesterday said Wiggins had “cemented his position as one of the greatest British Olympians ever”.
He said: “To claim an Olympic gold medal and the Tour de France in the span of less than four weeks is nothing short of extraordinary.”
Redgrave won one gold medal at every Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000 as well as claiming an extra bronze in Seoul in 1988.
Wiggins won bronze in the team pursuit event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, one gold, one silver and one bronze in Athens 2004, two golds in Beijing 2008 and gold in London 2012.
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