The 10 sailors so far selected to represent Great Britain at this summer’s Olympics were the first athletes of any sport to be announced by Team GB; filling the spots in seven of the ten Sailing classes.
The team is a mix of fresh talent and experienced Olympians. Tokyo 2020 Nacra 17 silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet, and windsurfing bronze medallist Emma Wilson lead the charge, along with two-times Olympian 49erFX crew Saskia Tidey, hoping it’ll be third-time lucky with new helm Freya Black; the rest make their Olympic debuts.
The ambition, according to Mark Robinson, RYA Performance Director, is to win three to five medals of any colour, and, above all, maintain Britain’s position – held for five of the last six Games – as top sailing nation. “That means more gold medals,” he says. “That will be our biggest challenge – can we be top nation? – particularly against the French who are throwing everything at it.”
Overcoming the home nation in Marseille will be no mean feat, given the French team’s head-start in the new board classes (several sailors were already semi-pro), the hefty funding injection they’ve received, and their exclusive access to a new state-of-the-art facility within the Olympic Marina, out of bounds to foreign teams.
Mark explains: “It’s always been a question of trajectory – can we catch the French for the gold medals prior to the Games? In last summer’s Test Event, France and Britain won five medals each – they took four gold, one silver; we took four silver, one
