| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 22 May 2001 Redhill, Surrey, England | ||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||
| Class | 49erFX | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Freya Black (born 22 May 2001) is a British sailor who won a bronze medal at the 2024 49erFX European Championship. She has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Having got her first taste of sailing with her two older sisters at the age of nine, [1] Black had a stellar junior career which included becoming a national and European champion. [1] [2]
In 2022 she moved into the senior ranks and was paired with Saskia Tidey in the women's 49erFX. [1] [3]
The duo won gold at the Lanzarote International Regatta in February 2023. [4] [5] They then finished fifth at the 2023 Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands, during the following month in a result which qualified the boat for the 2024 Summer Olympics. [1] [2] [6]
In October 2023, Black's place at the Olympics in Paris was officially confirmed when the Great Britain sailing squad was announced by Team GB. [7] [8] [9]
In February 2024, Black was named in the Athena Pathway team for the inaugural Women's America's Cup to be held in Barcelona, Spain, in September and October that year. [10] [11]
Alongside Tidey, she came 14th at 49erFX World Championship in Lanzarote, Spain, in March 2024. [12] [13]
Black won her first major senior medal in May 2024, when she and Tidey took bronze at the 49erFX European Championship in La Grande-Motte, France. [14] [15]
Black is a philosophy, politics and economics student at the University of Exeter but paused her studies to focus on her Olympic ambitions. [1] [2]
The 49er and 49er FX is a two-handed skiff-type high-performance sailing dinghy. The two crew work on different roles with the helm making many tactical decisions, as well as steering, and the crew doing most of the sail control. Both of the crew are equipped with their own trapeze and sailing is done while cantilevered over the water to the fullest extent to balance against the sails.
Chris Draper is a British sailor who has won multiple World and European championships and a bronze medal at the Sailing at the 2004 Olympic competing in the mixed 49er. He has been a winner of the Extreme Sailing Series and was helmsman for Luna Rossa, Italy's America's cup challenger 2011 to 2015. In the 34th Americas cup he became the first Britain to helm in the Louis Vuitton cup final. For the ACWS & 35th America's Cup between 2015 and the Cup event in Bermuda in June 2017 he held the position of Sailing Team Manager / Tactician and Wing trimmer for Softbank Team Japan. In 2019 he became CEO and Wing trimmer for the Great Britain team racing in the newly formed SailGP, racing the F50 hydro foiling catamarans in a global racing circuit. In 2021 he joined the Japanese SailGP team as a Wing Trimmer. winning multiple events during the 2021/2022 SailGP season and finishing runners up overall.
Peter Burling is a New Zealand sailor. He was the 2021 America's Cup winning skipper and helmsman, and the 2017 America's Cup winning helmsman of Team New Zealand. Burling won an Olympic gold medal in the 49er class at the 2016 games and silver medals in the 2012 and 2020 Olympics.
The 49er World Championships are international sailing regattas in the 49er and 49er FX classes organized by the International Sailing Federation. It was first held in 1997. In 2013, the 49er FX class was added to the programme.
Hannah Louise Mills, is a British competitive sailor and two-time world champion in the Women's 470 class, having won in 2012 and 2019. Mills won a silver medal for Team GB with her crew Saskia Clark in the 2012 Olympics, she followed this up with a gold in the same event at both the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and, partnered by Eilidh McIntyre, the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
Saskia Clark, is a British sailor and Olympic Gold medalist. She competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics and she was selected, along with Hannah Mills, to sail in the 470 Women's class for Team GB. They went on to win silver at the 2012 Olympic games and a gold medal at the 2016 games.
Olivia Price is an Australian sailor. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Olympics in sailing, and won a silver medal.
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.
Sophie Claire Ainsworth is a British sailor who qualified to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Charlotte Fletcher-Scott is a British sailor who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Ragna Agerup is a Norwegian Olympic sailor and a Junior World champion. She represents the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club in Oslo and New York Yacht Club in New York City. Her college team was Brown University in Providence, RI.
Saskia Tidey in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, is sailor who has represented both Ireland and Great Britain in international sailing regattas.
Dylan James Fletcher-Scott is a British sailor and Olympic champion in Men's 49er in Tokyo 2020. Fletcher and Alain Sign placed sixth in the 49er event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Lim Min, known as Kimberly Lim, is a Singaporean sailor. She was a multiple medalist in various sailing classes in various editions of the Asian Games and also the champion of the Optimist World Championships in 2011. She participated in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Eilidh Jane McIntyre is a British former sailor, who won the gold medal alongside Hannah Mills in the 470 event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She won the 2019 470 World Championships, and came second at the 2017 470 World Championships. She finished third at the 2015 470 European Championships, and second at the 2019 and 2021 events, as well as having won multiple Sailing World Cup medals. In 2022, McIntyre was awarded an MBE for services to yachting.
Anouk Geurts is a Belgian sailor. She has competed in the 49 FX class at the 2020 Summer Olympics together with Isaura Maenhaut.
Isaura Maenhaut van Lemberge is a Belgian sailor. She has competed in the 49 FX class at the 2020 Summer Olympics together with Anouk Geurts.
This article details the qualifying phase for sailing at the 2024 Summer Olympics. 312 quota places for the Games are entitled to the sailors coming from their respective NOCs, based on the results at designated regattas supervised by World Sailing. Host nation France reserves a single boat in each of the ten sailing classes, whereas four quota places are distributed to the NOCs competing in the men's singlehander ILCA 7 and women's singlehander ILCA 6 under the Tripartite Commission.
Vita Heathcote is a British sailor who won a gold medal at the 2019 420 World Championships in the women's category and silver at the 2024 470 World Championships in the mixed section. She has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Michael "Micky" Beckett is a British sailor who won a gold medal at the 2021 ILCA European Championships and silver at the 2023 Sailing World Championships. He has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
