HE’S a double Olympic gold medallist rower, has climbed Mount Everest, walked to the North Pole and overcome phobia to win a Dancing on Ice special – now Steve Williams is ready to instil his winning mentality at Ipswich Town Football Club.

The 36-year-old – who stepped into Sir Steve Redgrave’s shoes to claim coxless fours victory at the Athens and Beijing Games – was appointed by the Blues as a fitness consultant this summer.

And while he doesn’t expect the players to be taking on the gruelling 42-hours-a-week training schedule that got him in prime physical condition, he will be hoping that his real life sports psychology lessons can make a difference.

“I was part of the British rowing team for 10 years of my life and that was very, very intense and very specific,” said the modest Williams.

“I did quite well in that world, but I’ve since gone off and done some other things just to get some diversity.

“I’ve found that even though lots of these worlds look very different, there are also lots of similarities too.

“A lot of things I learnt in rowing I have been able to apply elsewhere. There are some simple core principles that are exactly the same.”

He added: “I’m working with individual players and the team as a whole, looking at every aspect of performance – the physiological side, the emotional side, the recovery side.

“On the basis of the experiences that I’ve had I’ll be giving some insight into some of the things that I think could shift the performances of the club forward.

“Some things will land really well and they’ll fly, some things won’t work and it will be time to move on. It’s all about searching for that winning formula.

“Even if I can help improve performances by a fraction of a percent then that will be a success.”

– See today’s EADT for full interview.