Steve Rider

Steve Rider was best known as the host of BBC Television’s Grandstand and Sportsnight for over 20 years, becoming the main anchor of their World Cup ’06 coverage and also hosting Champions League on ITV1, before joining ITV Sport in 2006 to present Formula One.

In 1980 Steve made his network debut as presenter of ITV coverage from the Moscow Olympics and he is the only television journalist to have presented all of the major sports magazine programmes of British Television.

His television career began at Anglia Television, where he was Sports Editor. Two years later he joined Thames Television where he was widely regarded as one of ITV sports top presenters and reporters.

In 1985 he accepted an invitation from the BBC to take over from Harry Carpenter as presenter of Sportsnight, a role he filled for six years. In 1991 he switched positions to become the main host of BBC Sports flagship programme Grandstand. During this period he also took over as BBC’s golf presenter and became closely associated with the Ryder Cup, The Open, the US Masters and World Matchplay.

Over the years Steve has anchored coverage of the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics and the Winter Olympics. He hosted the bulk of BBC’s coverage of the Barcelona 1996 Olympics, which won the International Olympic Committee Golden Rings Award, the Royal Television Society Sports Award and was nominated for a BAFTA award.

Other sporting events Steve presented for the BBC include The Cricket World Cup in 1999, three major documentaries on The Open 2000 and the award winning documentary on Ayrton Senna and Motormonth, a weekly look at motor racing around the country.
He developed the BBC’s domestic motor sports profile and pioneered the highly successful British Touring Car Championship through BHP, which became a highly rated Grandstand feature.