In recognition of their outstanding performances and personal achievements in the summer, Britain’s Athens Gold medallists, and ‘Team Volvo for Life’ sailors, Shirley Robertson and Ben Ainslie have been presented with a Volvo each.

Volvo Car UK set Ben and Shirley the added challenge of winning a car of their choice from the range if they achieved top honours of Gold medals in Athens – and they achieved these goals in true winning style.

The award-winning XC90 was the natural chose for Shirley, as she had already put one to the test, fully laden and towing a boat across the Continent with her team during their training campaign; Meanwhile, Ben chose the sleek, high-performance, 300bhp S60 R with Volvo’s active Four-C chassis.

Shirley Robertson said: “Volvo have been much more than a sponsor; it’s all about team work and that team spreads much further than us who sailed the boat. Volvo were most definitely part of our gold medal winning team.”