Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gained a popular following across Europe and North America by the late 1970s and had achieved significant global popularity by the 1980s. Windsurfing became an Olympic sport in 1984.
Lee Lai Shan is a former world champion and Olympic gold medal-winning professional windsurfer from Hong Kong. She was the first athlete to win an Olympic medal representing Hong Kong. As of 2024, she is the still the only non-fencer to win an Olympic gold medal for Hong Kong.
Gal Fridman is an Israeli windsurfer and Israel's first Olympic gold medalist. Fridman won a Bronze Medal in the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, and a gold medal in the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the first of two Israelis athletes to win two Olympic Medals, and the first Olympic Gold medalist in Israeli history. His first name, Gal, means "wave" in Hebrew.
Hansjörg Kunze is a German track and field athlete. He represented East Germany as a long distance runner.
Nicholas Charles Dempsey is a British windsurfer, who lives in Poole, Dorset. He became the first man to win three Olympics medals in windsurfing when he won silver in the 2016 Rio Olympics, adding to a silver won in the 2012 London Olympics, and a bronze from the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is also twice world champion, winning gold in 2009 and 2013.
Shahar Tzuberi is an Israeli windsurfer and Olympic bronze medalist, surfing in the "Neil Pryde" RS:X discipline. He is a nephew of Gad Tsobari, the 1972 Olympic wrestler who escaped from Arab terrorists during the Munich massacre. He is a three-time Olympian.
Michael William "Gebi" Gebhardt is a former professional and Olympic windsurfer from the United States, who competed in five consecutive Summer Olympics, in the Olympic sailing discipline/event of windsurfing. He was born in Columbus, Ohio.
Anthony Steven "Tony" Philp MF is a former Windsurfing World Champion and Olympic sailor from Fiji. Currently a Brand Ambas'ador for international outdoor magazine The Outdoor Journal, he is also a consultant for the International Surfing Association.
The Mistral One Design Class (MOD) is a one-design windsurfing class chosen by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) for use at the Olympic regatta in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. Starting with the 2008 Summer Olympics it was replaced by the RS:X class, which was replaced by the iQFoil class for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
RS:X is a windsurfing class selected by the ISAF to replace the Mistral One Design Class for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The discipline has similarities to Formula Windsurfing - mainly in that the equipment used was designed to allow windsurfing in low and moderate wind conditions with good performance.
Randall Scott Steele is an American competitive sailor, World Champion (Windsurfer) and Olympic Silver Medalist (Yachting/Sailing/Windglider)
Maayan Davidovich is an Israeli Olympic windsurfer.
Lee (Lee-El) Korzits is an Israeli windsurfer who has won four Windsurfing World Championships titles. She competed in the 2004 Olympics, finishing 13th, and at the 2012 Olympics, finishing 6th.
Irina Emilova Konstantinova-Bontemps is a Bulgarian windsurfer, who specialized in Neil Pryde RS:X class. She represented Bulgaria in four editions of the Olympic Games, and has also placed outside the top ten in both Mistral and RS:X classes. In 2006, Konstantinova married French windsurfer, two-time world champion, and later 2008 Olympic silver medalist Julien Bontemps before she relocated to France, and trained for ASPTT Nantes. As of September 2013, Konstantinova is ranked no. 88 in the world for the sailboard class by the International Sailing Federation.
Charline Picon is a French windsurfer who specialized in the Neil Pryde RS:X class. She captured two bronze medals in her respective class at the Windsurfing World Championships, and an Olympic title at the 2016 Summer Olympics after attaining a top ten finish at the 2012 Summer Olympics. As of September 2014, Picon is ranked as one of the top ten sailors in the world for the sailboard class by the International Sailing Federation, following her successes at the European and World Championships and at the Sailing World Cup series.
Vita Matīse is a Latvian windsurfer, who specialized in Mistral One Design, Neil Pryde RS:X, and raceboarding classes. She represented Latvia in two editions of the Olympic Games, and has also placed outside the top ten in both Mistral and RS:X classes. In 2013, Matise returned to the sport from her nine-year hiatus and had changed her strategic game plan by delivering an impressive performance and her first ever trophy at the inaugural Raceboard World Championships in Pavlov, Czech Republic. As of May 2014, Matise is ranked no. 35 in the world for the sailboard class by the International Sailing Federation.
Caroll-Ann Rosenberg née Alie is a retired Olympian in windsurfing. Apart from her Olympic appearances, Alie won gold at the 1995 Pan American Games and silver at the 1999 Pan American Games. She was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Emma Wilson is a British windsurfer who won a bronze medal in the RS:X event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won the RS:X events at the Youth Sailing World Championships in 2016 and 2017, and won medals at the 2018 and 2019 RS:X European Championships, and the 2022 and 2023 IQFoil European Championships. She won her second Olympic bronze medal in the iQFoil at the 2024 Paris Games.
Lisa Neuburger is an American sailor. Lisa competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Olympics. Lisa is a two-time world windsurfing champion having won the IYRU Women’s World Championships in 1984 and the Production Board Open World Championships in 1987. Her competitive windsurfing career spanned more than 2 decades in one-design and open classes, and professional PWA World Cup competition from 1979 through 2004, including multiple regional and National titles and top rankings, gold medal wins in the 1993 Caribbean and Central American Games in Puerto Rico and the 1994 Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, and a silver medal finish in the 1995 Pan Am Games in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. On the professional World Cup tour, Lisa was internationally ranked and finished in the top 5 overall in the women’s PWA Pro World Tour in 1991. Lisa Neuburger was a professional high-performance and elite level windsurfing and sailing coach for the Guatemalan Sports Federation, was a nationally recognized elite-level windsurfing coach with the Hong Kong Sports Institute in which she was awarded Hong Kong Coach of the Year in 1999 and was the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games Men’s windsurfing coach for Hong Kong; she was the elite level Windsurfing coach for the Mexican Sailing Federation, the Belgian Sailing Federation, and was Head Coach of Sailing for the Swiss Olympic Team in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, coaching all Olympic sailing classes including windsurfing for Switzerland. Her contributions to the sport of windsurfing included head and supervisory instructor positions with Prairie Windsurfing until 1984, and directing, owning, operating Lisa Neuburger Windsurfing School and Center and Off The Beaten Path Vacations in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. She was Head Coach and director of SailExcellence, Inc, an international Olympic sailing private and national coaching service.
Helen E. "Penny" Wilson is a British former windsurfer, who won multiple Windsurfing World Championships events. She competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics coming 6th and the 1996 Summer Olympics coming 7th.
