Sir Charles Benedict AinslieCBE (born 5 February 1977) is a British competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at four consecutive Games from 2000 to 2012.[2][3]
He is one of three men to win medals in five different Olympic Games in sailing, doing so after Torben Grael and Robert Scheidt, and the second to win four gold medals, after Paul Elvstrøm.[3][4]
Ainslie is team principal, CEO and skipper of INEOS Britannia and CEO and until 2024 was the driver of the Great Britain SailGP Team.[5]
He started sailing at the age of eight and first competed at the age of ten.[9] His first international competition was aged twelve at the 1989 Optimist world championships held in Japan where he placed 73rd.
On 19 May 2012, Ainslie became the first person to carry the Olympic torch in the UK. Starting the 70-day tour of the United Kingdom at Land's End, he was the first of 8,000 torch carriers.[10] He was selected on 11 August 2012 to carry the flag for the Great Britain team at the London 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.[11]
At the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships he was in a winning position going into the closing stages of the regatta but was disqualified under rule 69 (gross misconduct) for physically threatening a photographer. Ainslie felt the photographer's boat's wake had prevented him from passing a competitor.[13]
At the beginning of 2005 Ainslie worked in the role of tactician in the New Zealand-based Team New Zealand who were preparing to compete in the challenger selection process to win the right to Challenge for the 32nd America's Cup. In May 2005 Ainslie took the decision to relinquish the role of tactician and focus on improving his match racing skills as helmsman of the 'B' boat used to practice and tune the race boat helmed by Dean Barker.
Ainslie figure headed a British challenge for the Cup alongside Sir Keith Mills the team was named Team Origin. However this challenge withdrew without competing following a period of discussion regarding the future format of the event.
For the 2013 America's Cup, Ainslie was recruited as a tactician by Oracle Team USA, as a replacement for John Kostecki during an Oracle practice session on 11 September 2013.[16] On 12 September, the following day, he replaced Kostecki going into race six of the 2013 America's Cup.[17] His Oracle Team USA beat Team New Zealand in the America's Cup decider in San Francisco on 25 September.[18]
In April 2018 Ainslie announced the Americas Cup team would be renamed INEOS TEAM UK in partnership with INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe. Again based out of the Portsmouth HQ the team built two new 75-foot foiling monohull yachts to compete for the 36th Americas Cup set which took place in Auckland, New Zealand in 2021.
On 21 October 2020, Ben and INEOS TEAM UK launched their race boat for the 36th America's Cup from their HQ in Auckland, naming the AC75 race boat 'Britannia' Following a disappointing performance in the Auckland ACWS event in December 2020, the team spent the following three weeks making modifications to their boat Britannia ahead of the start of the Prada Cup qualifying series. This included a new mast and sails as well as modifications to the hull and foils. The team received support from INEOS sponsored Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.
INEOS Team UK dominated the Round Robin phase of the Prada Cup which saw them race and beat each of the two other challenger teams three times, securing their place in the Prada Cup Final beginning on 13 February 2021. The team's place in the Prada Cup final marked a significant point in their campaign, being the furthest any British challenge had progressed in the competition since the introduction of a challenger selection series.
After Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's win in the Prada Cup Semi-Finals against American Magic, the American team was eliminated from the event, securing the Italian team's place in the Prada Cup Final alongside INEOS Team UK.
The Prada Cup Finals were held in predominantly light wind (8-14 knots), with Luna Rossa showing great improvement in boat handling, winning the first 5 races consecutively. INEOS Team UK showed superior downwind pace in Race 6, taking their sole race win before Luna Rossa dominated Day 4 to take their sixth and seventh race win, winning the Prada Cup overall, and securing their place in the 36th America's Cup Match against Emirates Team New Zealand.
On 17 March 2021, following Emirates Team New Zealand's defence of their title (their seventh win overall), the Chairman of Royal Yacht Squadron Racing, Bertie Bicket, issued a pre-arranged, "friendly" challenge to the Commodore of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Aaron Young.[20][21] This made Royal Yacht Squadron Racing Ltd and their sailing team Ineos Team UK the Challenger of Record for the 37th Louis Vuitton America's Cup.[22]
The challenge agreed that the 37th Americas Cup would be raced in the America's Cup 75 (AC75), a 23 m (75 ft) foiling monohull class, that there would be nationality rules in place, a cost reduction programme and that the America's Cup will be raced in Barcelona as a first-to-seven-wins series from 12 October 2024 (expected to be completed on or before 21 October 2024).[23] The Royal Yacht Squadron's challenge is the first time a British team had competed in three consecutive America's Cup cycles since 1930 when Sir Thomas Lipton challenged in the yacht Shamrock V.[21][24]
In December 2010, Ainslie finished in first place in the World Match Racing Tour, and is the 2010 ISAF Match Racing Champion.
The Extreme Sailing Series
In January 2014, it was announced that Ainslie would compete in the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series as part of his preparation for the America's Cup. The eight-race event will see him compete in a 40 feet (12m) multi-hull boat.[29]
In August 2014, Ainslie was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.[30]
On 20 December 2014, Ainslie married former Sky Sports News presenter Georgie Thompson.[31] The couple have a daughter, Bellatrix, born in 2016.[32] and a son, Fox, born in 2021.[33]
Awards and honours
1995 British Yachtsman of the Year, and in 1999, 2000 and 2002.
Sir Russell Coutts is a world champion New Zealand yachtsman. He won an Olympic gold medal and skippered three Americas Cup victories in 1995, 2000, and 2003.
Paul Pierre Cayard is an American yachtsman and professional sailor. He has competed at multiple world championship level sailing events, including the America's Cup, the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race and the Olympic Games. In 1998 he was selected as the US Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year. He has won seven world championships, twice participated in the Olympic Games and seven times in the America's Cup. In 2011 he was elected into the US Sailing Hall of Fame.
Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The team has been branded as Emirates Team New Zealand at America's Cup competitions since 2007.
Robert Scheidt is a Brazilian sailor who has won two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze from five Olympic Games and a Star Sailors League Final. He is one of the most successful sailors at Olympic Games and one of the most successful Brazilian Olympic athletes, being one of only two to earn five medals along with fellow sailor Torben Grael, and only behind the six medals of Rebeca Andrade. He is the only Brazilian sailor to win medals in both dinghy and keelboat classes.
Dean Raymond Barker is a New Zealand yachtsman. He is best known internationally for his participation in America's Cup yacht races.
Christopher Stuart Dickson is a sailor from New Zealand. He was world youth champion three years in succession and later became world match race champion three times. He also skippered several yachts in America's Cup racing, and for New Zealand at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and in numerous other sailing competitions.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, originally named Prada Challenge, then Luna Rossa Challenge, is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate first created to compete for the 2000 America's Cup. It won the Louis Vuitton Cup on its first attempt in 2000, but then lost the America's Cup match against the defending champion team, Team New Zealand.
James Spithill is an Australian yachtsman.
Nathan James Outteridge is an Australian sailor, a resident of Lake Macquarie.
Roderick Hopkins Davis is a former competitive sailor who won Olympic medals for two countries. At the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, representing the United States, he won the gold medal in the Soling class along with Robert Haines and Edward Trevelyan. After moving to New Zealand he was chosen to represent that country at the next three Olympic Games. Along with Don Cowie he won a silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in the Star class.
Andrew James "Bart" Simpson, was an English sailor who won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, as crew for skipper Iain Percy in the Star class representing Great Britain. Simpson died in the capsize of the catamaran he was crewing on 9 May 2013, while training for the America's Cup in San Francisco Bay.
Andrew Blair Tuke is a New Zealand sailor who won the 2021 Americas Cup Held in Auckland and also won the 2017 Version held in Bermuda. He also won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the 49er class alongside Peter Burling.
The 2017 Louis Vuitton Challenger's Trophy was a sailing competition held to determine the challenger in the 2017 America's Cup.
Giles Lyndon Scott is a British competitive sailor and four-time Finn Gold Cup winner and two-time Olympic gold medallist who won the gold medal for Team GB in the Finn Class at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where having dominated the class, Scott secured his place in the history books winning the gold medal with a day to spare. In January 2024, Scott took over the Driver role of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team from Sir Ben Ainslie. He secured his first SailGP event win in Halifax, Canada, in June 2024. Scott is also part of Ainslie's British America's Cup Team, INEOS Britannia.
INEOS Britannia is a British sailing team that is the challenger of record for the 37th America's Cup.
The 2021 America's Cup in March 2021 was the 36th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. It was contested on the inner Hauraki Gulf off Auckland, New Zealand, between the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia of Italy. The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's boat was Te Rehutai owned and sailed by the Emirates Team New Zealand syndicate. Circolo della Vela Sicilia's boat was Luna Rossa, owned and sailed by the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli syndicate. Both boats are AC75 class high-performance foiling monohulls, a class designed specifically for this competition. The Cup was won by Team New Zealand, 7–3.
The AC75 is a racing yacht used in the 2021 America's Cup and 37th America's Cup matches and planned to be used for the 38th America's Cup match. The 23 m (75 ft) monohulls feature wing-like sailing hydrofoils mounted under the hull, a soft wingsail, and no keel.
American Magic is an American yacht racing team formed to compete for the 36th America's Cup. They represent the New York Yacht Club and were formed in 2018 by principals Hap Fauth, Roger Penske, and Doug DeVos.
The 2024 America's Cup was the 37th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. It was contested from 12 October 2024 as a first-to-seven-wins match-race series in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, between Taihoro, representing the defender, the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron; and Britannia, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron of the United Kingdom, which won the Louis Vuitton Challenger Selections Series, also in Barcelona, on 4 October 2024. It was the first time the UK has sailed in an America’s Cup match since 1964.
The America's Cup is a yacht racing competition. It is the oldest continuous competition in international sport, and among the world's most prestigious sporting trophies.
↑ @AinslieBen (14 July 2021). "Big moment for our little family @OfficiallyGT😘" (Tweet) – via Twitter. Welcome to the World Fox Ainslie ❤️Our second miracle baby being adored by our first ❤️ We couldn't be more grateful, more humbled or more amazed by those who helped @AinslieBen and I make this moment a reality or more in love with our little fox cub ❤️
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