Gold Rush - The British Olympic sailing team win the lottery, in more ways than one. Original YW archive scans tell the story
After years of tough competition and many near misses, Britain suddenly had a team of Olympic sailing heroes. With five medals under their belt, thanks to Ben Ainsle, Iain Percy, Shirley Robertson, Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks and Ian Walker and Mark Covell, British sailing established a force to be reckoned with. This force was not only felt in the sailing community, but in the national Olympic team as sailing won five out of the twenty-eight medals gained that year. Sailing was now the nation’s second most successful sport, closely beaten by Athletics.
With an injection of Lottery funding, British sailors could now advance their knowledge in areas such a psychology and technical testing, as well as not worrying how they were going to pay their bills. This combination allowed Britain to set a new datum for the modern Olympics.
Olympic sailing was no longer just about consistency but who had the edge to push it that bit further to gain a medal.
Yachting World has covered every Olympics since the first in 1896. As part of our build up to the 2012 Games we delve into our archives to take a look back at how Yachting World reported some of the key events in the history of the sailing Olympics.
Our exclusive mini series, only available online, draws on Yachting World’s extensive archive of original reports and makes compulsive reading.
Simply click on the links to download our pdf scans of the original YW features.
2000 Olympic Feature
Gold Rush – The British Olympic sailing team win the lottery
