To Win A Line 7 Squadron Jacket
Next Event
27 - 31 August 2008
Frederikshavn, Denmark
2008 World Championship Standings
Day 1 from Match Cup Sweden at Sail.TV
Search
Search the World Match Racing Tour website:
|
 |
Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Ben Ainslie, a three-time Olympic medalist. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
|
Ben Ainslie and Peter Holmberg eye each other’s boat during a dial up in the final of the PTPortugal Match Cup. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
|
Staffan Lindberg (right) gets a penalty after draping his spinnaker all over Ben Ainslie in the quarterfinals. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
|
Sten Mohr trails Ben Ainslie upwind in a match won by Ainslie, which prevented Mohr from advancing to the semifinals. (Swedish Match Tour/Guido Cantini)
|
Nationality British
Residence Lymington, England
Date of Birth Feb. 5, 1977
Web site Ben Ainslie.com
Ben, skipper for Team Origin, scored his first career victory on the World Tour in October 2006 when he captured the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle.
World Match Racing Tour Resutls
2006-’07
1st — Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle ’06
(Crew: James Dagg, Terry Hutchinson, Jeremy Lomas, Tony Rae)
2005-’06
2nd — PT Portugal Match Cup ’05
(Crew: Stu Bettany, Ray Davies, Rob Salthouse, Chris Ward)
3rd — Brazil Sailing Cup ’06
(Crew: Kelvin Harrap, Richard Meacham, Tony Rae, Rob Salthouse)
5th — St. Moritz Match Race ’05
(Crew: Andy Hemmings, Andy McLean)
2004-’05
5th — Match Race Germany ’05
(Crew: Ray Davies, Andy Hemmings, Richard Meacham, Chris Salthouse)
2001-’02
8th — Danish Open ’01
America’s Cup Affiliation
2007: Emirates Team New Zealand (afterguard)
2003: OneWorld Challenge (afterguard)
Accomplishments
2005 – Finn World Champion
2004 Olympics – Gold medal, Finn class
2004 – Finn World Champion
2003 – Finn World Champion
2002 – Finn World Champion
2002 – World Sailor of the Year
2000 Olympics – Gold medal, Laser class
1998 – World Sailor of the Year
1996 Olympics – Silver medal, Laser class
Two-time World Sailor of the Year (1998, 2000)
Four-time British Yachtsman of the Year (1995, ’99, 2000, ’02)
British Young Sailor of the Year (1995)
Additional Information
Ben Ainslie began sailing at the age of 10 when his parents took he and his sister sailing. He credits his parents are the most influential people in his life. “They have traveled with me all over the world and given their unerring support for many years.” Ainslie’s father, Roddy, skippered Second Life in the inaugural 1973-’74 Whitbread Round the World race.
Ainslie says Russell Coutts is his idol, “He’s achieved so much in sailing.”
It’s no wonder then that Ainslie has become the dominant force in the singlehanded Finn class. Like Coutts 20 years before him, Ainslie won the gold medal in the Finn class at the Athens Olympic Regatta in 2004. But it wasn’t his first Olympic experience.
Forget the Soling, the best match-racing seen at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics was Ainslie’s final race duel with Brazilian Laser class legend Robert Scheidt for the gold.
In Savannah in ’96, Schiedt finessed the 19-year-old Briton into an early start under Black Flag conditions after several aborted starts. The Brazilian could afford the disqualification and still grab gold. The Briton could not, and he wound up with a silver medal and a lesson learned.
Four years later Ainslie turned the tables in Sydney, not so covering as smothering Scheidt in the final race to sail him down the fleet. Estimates vary as to the number of the tacks, but it was huge, and the boathandling millimetric perfect.
As the only man to have broken Scheidt’s run of seven world titles, Ainslie moved to the Finn after Sydney. Within a year he was world champion (the first of three).
After the gold in Sydney, Ainslie joined the OneWorld Challenge for the 2003 America’s Cup. His stay was short. Desiring another gold medal, he left OneWorld after 14 months in camp and focused on the 2004 Olympics in Athens, and he turned in another memorable performance.
A 9th in Race 1 and disqualification in Race 2 left him no room for error in the 11-race, two-discard series. But as they say in New Zealand, “No worries, mate.” Ainslie staged a forceful comeback. He won three of the next four races and crushed the opposition. He won his second gold medal by 13 points, despite carding a 14th in the final race.
Now Ainslie is back in the America’s Cup arena and another Olympic campaign. He plans to combine his Olympic training with competing on the World Match Racing Tour as a member of Team Origin.
Ainslie is a two-time world sailor of the year (1998, 2002) and four-time British Yachtsman of the Year. He has been British, European and world Laser champion and, for the past three years, the world Finn champion.
|
|
|
|
