Britain's most decorated female Olympian has 5 degrees including a PhD

Glasgow-born rower Katherine Grainger has become the UK's most decorated female Olympian, after winning a silver medal in the women's double sculls race today (August 11).

The 40-year-old athlete completed the race in 7:05.32 minutes with partner Victoria Thornley at Rio de Janeiro's Lagoa Stadium, scooping up her fifth Olympic medal.

Grainger - who takes the title of Britain's most decorated female Olympian from swimmer Rebecca Adlington - previously won three silver Olympic medals in Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), and Beijing (2008). Most notably, she won the gold medal in the women's double sculls with her partner Anna Watkins at the London 2012 Games.

Grainger's latest win makes her the only female athlete in any sport to pick up medals in five consecutive Olympic Games.

But rowing isn't her only forte. Grainger is also something of an academic wizard, with five degrees to her name, including a law degree from Edinburgh University - where she first began rowing in 1993, according to her official website.

After reading law at Edinburgh, she went on to pursue an MPhil in Medical Law and Medical Ethics at Glasgow University. In 2013, she returned to academia to complete a PhD in the sentencing of homicide at King's College at the University of London.

Remarkably, she earned her gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics while working on her PhD. "Without planning it both my Olympic career and my PhD have met at the same time and the culmination for both is 2012 - not by design," she is quoted in The Express.

She has even been awarded two honorary degrees: the first from The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in 2011, and the second from her alma mater, Edinburgh University, in 2011.

With her many rowing and academic accolades, it is an understatement to call Grainger a high achiever.