Profile
 
Ben Ainslie OBE

Double Olympic Gold and Silver Medallist

CV l Achievements & Awards l Charities I Q&A

Ben Ainslie is Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor together with 1960's Olympian Rodney Pattison. In 2008, Ben will endeavour to win his third successive Olympic Gold, and fourth Olympic Medal in Beijing. He will be just 31 years old.

Ben Ainslie career in sailing began at the age of 8 with his family in Restronguet, Cornwall. Bens father Roddy was a proficient sailor who had skippered ‘Second Life’ in the first Whitbread Round the World Race of 1973-74, so naturally encouraged Ben’s interest. What started as a hobby quickly turned into a way of life, and by the age of 16 Ben was already Laser Radial World Champion. With the help and continuous support of both his parents, Ben set his sights higher and higher until at just 19 years old he won his first Olympic medal - Silver in the Laser class at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Four years later, again sailing the Laser, he achieved every athlete’s dream of Olympic Gold in Sydney.

After the Sydney Olympics, Ben changed focus and spent fourteen months with the ‘One World Challenge’ campaign for the 2003 America’s Cup, but soon felt that Olympic sailing, and in particular switching classes from the Laser to the Finn Class, was what he needed to pursue at that point in his life.

The move to the Finn meant Ben had to put in plenty of extra hours at the gym to increase his bodyweight by 15 kilos to achieve the optimum weight for the larger Finn class. This gruelling training programme paid off when in 2002, a little over a year after changing classes, Ben won the Finn World Championships. He successfully defended this world title for the following 2 years, equaling the record of three wins set by Brazilian Jorg Bruder in the early ‘70’s. In 2005 he then made history to become the most successful Finn sailor ever by winning his fourth successive Finn Gold Cup.

In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Ben won his second Gold medal and third Olympic medal in the larger Finn Class, cementing his place as one of the World's top sailors.

After Athens, Ben was given the opportunity to join Emirates Team New Zealand and re-enter the Americas Cup Arena. His role is as an afterguard member and 'B-boat' helmsman. He is also regularly competing on the World Match Racing Tour on behalf of Emirates Team New Zealand.

Ben has won eight World and European Championships in his sailing career to date, been crowned ISAF World Sailor of the Year in 1998 and 2002, and four times won British Yachtsman of the Year.

Ben’s focus for the future is to combine both competing in the America’s Cup with the quest for more Olympic medals in both Beijing 2008 and London 2012. 

For more information see Ben's Website at:

www.benainslie.com