| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 27 August 1985 West Mersea, Colchester, Essex, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class | Sonar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Hannah Stodel (born 27 August 1985) is a British Paralympic sailor. Stodel has represented Great Britain at three Summer Paralympics and with her colleagues John Robertson and Stephen Thomas has won multiple medals in the Mixed Sonar class at the Disabled Sailing World Championships, including gold in 2005 and 2006.
Stodel was born in 1985, growing up in the coastal village of West Mersea, in south-east England. [1] She was born without a lower right arm. [2] Stodel matriculated to Loughborough University where she studied Sport & Exercise Science. [3]
Stodel was introduced to sailing at the age of three, her first boat being a Mirror. [1] Stodel has stated that due to her disability she was bullied as a child, and she used sailing as an escape from the pain. [2] In 1995 she joined the Royal Yachting Association Mirror National Junior Squad, a predominantly able bodied team, as she felt disability events were a weaker option. [1] [2]
Her sailing career path changed after receiving a phone call from Andy Cassell, a British Paralympic sailor. He invited Stodel to a sailing weekend where he argued that disability competitions were not a lesser form of sailing and that by switching from mainstream competitions more opportunities would become available to her. [2] Stodel was won over by Cassell and in 2003 she switched class to sonar competing in disability events. [2] [3] She teamed up with fellow British sailors John Robertson and Stephen Thomas and in 2003 they secured the bronze medal at the IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championship in Athens. [3] The following year the trio qualified for their first Summer Paralympics, finishing sixth in the Sonar class. [1]
Stodel, Robertson and Thomas would remain as a team for over 12 years, with major successes coming in the 2005 World Championships in Sønderborg and the 2006 World Championships in Perth where they took gold in their class. [3] They represented Britain in their second Paralympics, in the 2008 Games in Beijing. They again finished sixth. [3] Two silver medals in the 2010 and 2011 IFDS World Championships were followed by their third successive Paralympics, this time on home surf when the games came to London. The London Paralympics ended in disappointment for Stodel and her team mates after they were deducted four points after a team bosun cleaned the port side of their keel after being authorized to inspect the craft for damage. [4] The deduction saw the British team drop to fifth and the bronze medal going to Norway, just three points ahead of them. [5]
In the run up to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Stodel was part of a third World Championship winning Sonar team, beating the Australian team by a single point. [6]
World Sailing (WS) is the world governing body for the sport of sailing recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Eighty athletes representing 25 countries in three keelboat classes - the 2.4mR, the SKUD 18, and the Sonar, took part in sailing in the 2008 Summer Paralympics. Sailing was held in two designated areas on the Yellow Sea, Qingdao, Shandong province, from September 8 to September 13.
The SKUD 18 is a class of racing sailing boat. It is a lead-assisted skiff with a tube-launched asymmetrical and a modern high performance stayed rig. The boat was created for trials held by the International Association for Disabled Sailing who were looking for a new two person boat for an additional medal allocated to sailing for the 2008 Paralympics.
The International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) was an affiliate member of the International Sailing Federation and was responsible for coordinating the paralympic sailing competition with the International Paralympic Committee. The organisation was initially called the International Foundation for Disabled Sailing up until around 2008 when it had to change its name due to tax law in the country it is registered in.
Great Britain competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012 as the host nation. A total of 288 athletes were selected to compete along with 13 other team members such as sighted guides. The country finished third in the medals table, behind China and Russia, winning 120 medals in total; 34 gold, 43 silver and 43 bronze. Multiple medallists included cyclist Sarah Storey and wheelchair athlete David Weir, who won four gold medals each, and swimmer Stephanie Millward who won a total of five medals. Storey also became the British athlete with the most overall medals, 22, and equal-most gold medals, 11, in Paralympic Games history.
Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, sailor, and politician. She is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Gosford since the 2017 Gosford state by-election.
Colin Anthony Harrison is an Australian Paralympic sailor. He won the bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the Three Person Sonar.
Russell Boaden is a Paralympic sailor from Australia. He won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, and a won a gold medal in the Mixed Three Person Sonar the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Daniel Fitzgibbon, is an Australian Paralympic sailor, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Liesl Tesch in the two person SKUD 18.
Alexandra Rickham is a British Paralympic sailor.
Sailing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London was held from August in Weymouth and Portland. XYZ competitors representing XYZ countries will compete in three keelboat classes - the 2.4mR, the SKUD 18, and the Sonar, took part in sailing in the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
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. Mills is currently the on-board Strategist for the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, competing at events around the world. In 2022, Mills and Sir Ben Ainslie launched Athena Pathway, a programme to help fast-track development for female and youth sailors. Athena Pathway has a team competing in the first ever Women’s America’s Cup, helmed by Mills, and has also put together the British Youth Team that will battle to retain the Youth America’s Cup after winning it at the last event in Bermuda in 2017.
Matthew Bugg is an Australian sailor. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 2.4mR class sailing event. He won a bronze medal at the 2015 IFDS World Championships. He won a silver medal in the 2.4mR at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Jonathan Bruce Harris is an Australian blue-water sailor who began his sailing career when he was about ten. He won a gold medal in the Mixed Three Person Sonar the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Helena Lucas MBE is a British Paralympic sailor.
Stephen Thomas is a British Paralympic sailor. Thomas has represented Great Britain at three Summer Paralympics and with his colleagues John Robertson and Hannah Stodel has won multiple medals in the Mixed Sonar class at the Disabled Sailing World Championships, including gold in 2005 and 2006.
John Curtis-Robertson is a British Paralympic sailor. Curtis-Robertson has represented Great Britain at three Summer Paralympics and with his colleagues Stephen Thomas and Hannah Stodel has won multiple medals in the Mixed Sonar class at the Disabled Sailing World Championships, including skippering his team to back to back gold medals in 2005 and 2006.
John Twomey is an Irish Paralympic athlete and sailor. He has represented Ireland at 11 consecutive Paralympic games winning medals at three of them.
Per Eugen Kristiansen is a Norwegian sailor from Bekkestua who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the Sonar class, together with Marie Solberg and Aleksander Wang-Hansen. He has sailed since he was 7. In 1994, he was involved in a climbing accident, and since then has been reliant on a wheelchair. Nine months later, he was an active sailor again. In 1998, he competed for the first time after a disabled sailor invited him to an event, and from then on, he has been an active regatta sailor. In January 2012, he won the World Sailing Championship in Florida.
Marie Solberg is a Norwegian sailor from Sarpsborg. She took part in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London in the Sonar class and won a bronze medal together with Per Eugen Kristiansen and Aleksander Wang-Hansen. She works as a graphic designer and graduated from Høgskolen i Østfold, Halden.
