Sarah Ayton, one of the original three blondes in a boat, has announced her bid to become the first British woman to win three successive Olympic gold medals.

Sarah will begin her campaign for a third gold in London, in the two person 470 dinghy with team-mate seasoned 470 campaigner Saskia Clark. Volvo Car UK will be backing their campaign as part of the Team Volvo for life sponsorship programme in addition to their support from Skandia Team GBR, the British sailing team.

Sarah Ayton commented: “After thinking really hard about my campaign and experimenting with match racing, it was an easy decision in the end to choose the 470. Teaming up with Saskia seemed the most natural route and we are already building up a strong understanding and can’t wait to get started on our campaign. The next event is Hyeres, where the conditions are going to really test us, but this first year is about building up the relationship and proving ourselves as a team.”

Saskia Clark finished sixth at the Beijing Games, and is looking forward to the path ahead to 2012. “The new partnership in the 470 class is really interesting as with Sarah being a double gold medallist I can learn a lot from her experience. Whereas I have a lot of competitive experience in the 470, so as a team I think we complement each other really well. In January Sarah came to the World Cup event in Miami at the last minute to see how we got on as a new team. It was a really successful trip as we performed much better than we thought finishing 13th. To be a part of Team Volvo for life and all the support that it brings gives us a really good chance to concentrate on what we have to do to win gold in 2012.”

For more, visit www.volvocars.co.uk/sailing