Dame Katherine Jane Grainger (born 12 November 1975) is a Scottish former rower and current Chair of UK Sport.

Grainger won a silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games 2016 with Victoria Thornley, after a two-year break from the sport.

[2] Her doctoral research (on "the genesis and challenges of the whole life order, introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, under which those sentenced face life-long incarceration with no possibility of release"[9]) was supervised by Elaine Player and Ben Bowling.

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.

In 2009, having switched to the single scull after the Beijing Olympics, Grainger claimed a surprise silver at the World Championships in Poland.

[17] In March 2015, Grainger was appointed the fourth chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, at a ceremony joined by her three predecessors, Shami Chakrabarti CBE, Jon Snow and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC.

Grainger was previously a board member of International Inspiration (2012-2017), a charity that promoted access to sport, play, and physical exercise for low- and middle-income families with children around the world.

[24] International Inspiration's board members included British broadcaster David Davies, former UK government minister Andrew Mitchell, and Sir Sebastian Coe.

[33] In July 2017, it was announced that the trophy awarded to the winners of the Senior Women's competition at the Home International Regatta would be known as Dame Katherine Grainger Quaich.

In January 2024 she was appointed an Honorary Colonel of the 215 (Scottish) Multirole Medical Regiment, Army Reserve.