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| Full name | Ian James Walker | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 25 February 1970 | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ian James Walker (born 25 February 1970 in Worcester, Worcestershire) is one of Britain's most successful sailors, with two Olympic silver medals to his name. He is a member of Northampton Sailing Club and Warsash Sailing Club.
Walker, together with Chris Fox, won the 1993 International 14 World Championship. [1]
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Savannah, Walker received the silver medal in the 470 class along with his sailing partner, John Merricks. [2] At the 1996 470 European Championships he won the bronze medal with his partner John Merricks. On 15 October 1997, both Walker and Merricks were passengers in a minivan in Italy when the driver lost control, and Merricks was killed. [3]
In 1999, Walker began sailing with Mark Covell. [3] At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Walker and Covell won the silver medal in the Star class. [4]
Walker also coached Shirley Robertson and her Yngling team to gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. [5]
When Great Britain launched its first bid for the America's Cup for 14 years in 2000, Walker was named as the skipper. Then, in the 2007 America's Cup he joined fellow Olympic medallist Iain Percy as the tactician of the Italian team +39 Challenge. His America's Cup commitments were combined with the highly successful TP52 campaign as skipper of Patches, owned by Eamon Conneely. [6]
In the 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race, he was the skipper of the boat Green Dragon. [7] the boat finished fifth in this race out of eight competitors.
In the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race, Walker skippered Abu Dhabi's first entry in the Volvo Ocean Race – Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Overall the team finished fifth out of the six competitors. [8]
Ian Walker was also appointed as skipper of Abu Dhabi's next entry, Azzam into the 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race, sailing the new VO65 class. He successfully lead the team to victory, securing an insurmountable point lead over the other teams on the second to last leg. [9] During this race the team also won the in-port race series [9] and set a 24-hour distance record of 550.82 nautical miles (1,020.12 km; 633.87 mi) while approaching Cape Horn. [10]
The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Race after Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo took up the sponsorship, and in 2019 it was renamed The Ocean Race.
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.
The Volvo Open 70 is the former class of racing yachts designed for the Volvo Ocean Race. It was first used in the 2005–06 race.
Torben Schmidt Grael is one of the most well known Brazilian sailors, renowned in international competitions. A descendant of Danes, he was taken sailing by his grandfather at the age of five years on the sailboat Aileen, of the 6 Metre class, which was the boat used by the silver medal-winning 1912 Summer Olympics Danish sailing team. Once he moved to Niterói, he started sailing with his brother, Lars Grael, also an Olympic medal winner, on the Bay of Guanabara. Another brother, Axel Grael, is the current mayor of Niterói. He is father of Olympic champion Martine Grael and sailor Marco Grael.
Fernando Echávarri Erasun is a professional yachtsman in the Olympic Tornado class. Teaming with crew Antón Paz Blanco, he became the Spanish, European, World Champion, ISAF Sailor of the year in 2005, Olympic gold medallist at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games held in Qingdao.
Iker Martínez de Lizarduy Lizarribar is a Spanish sailor and olympic champion. Martínez de Lizarduy won a gold medal in the 49er class with Xabier Fernández at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. The same pairing won the silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The 2008–09 Volvo Ocean Race was a yacht race held between 4 October 2008 and 27 June 2009, the tenth edition of the round the world Volvo Ocean Race.
Kenneth Read is an American yachtsman who is considered one of the world's most accomplished and celebrated sailors. He was named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year twice, and has won more than 50 world, North American, and national championships in a variety of classes, with eleven of those being World Championships titles in the J/24, Etchells 22 and yacht classes.
John Edward Merricks was an English sailor. He represented Great Britain at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, where he received the silver medal in the 470 class along with his sailing partner, Ian Walker. At the 1996 470 European Championships he and Walker won the silver medal.
The 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race was the 11th edition of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, yacht race which started with an in-port race in Alicante, Spain on 29 October 2011 with six Volvo Open 70 yachts at the start line and ended with an in-port race in Galway, Ireland on 7 July 2012. The 39,270 NM route involved stopovers and in-port races in Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, Itajaí, Miami, Lisbon, Lorient, and finally Galway. The race consisted of nine ocean races and ten in-port races.
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.
Mark Covell is a Scottish competitive sailor and Olympic medalist. He won a silver medal in the Star class at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, along with Ian Walker.
The Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society is a group of Oxford and Cambridge sailing Blues and Half Blues. Their influence on UK and international sailing, particularly team racing, has been quite disproportionate to their small numbers of just over 300 people. Since the founding of the Oxford & Cambridge Sailing Society (O&CSS) in 1934, members have competed in 13 Sailing Olympics and won eight medals.
Annie Lush is an English sailor. She was born in Poole, Dorset.
Joanna Ayela Aleh is a New Zealand sailor. She is a national champion, a former world champion, and an Olympic gold medallist.
The 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race was the 12th edition of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race. It started on 19 October 2014 in Alicante, Spain, and concluded in June 2015 in Gothenburg, Sweden. After 38,739 nautical miles of ocean racing, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing led by skipper Ian Walker claimed the overall trophy.
The Volvo Ocean 65 class yacht Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing was built for the 2014–15 Volvo Ocean Race. Following this, the boat was refitted and renamed for the 2017–18 Volvo Ocean Race where it competed as Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag. For the 2023 The Ocean Race she was renamed again to Viva México.
Azzam was a Volvo Open 70 yacht by Farr Yacht Design. She finished fifth in the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race skippered by Ian Walker.
Rob Greenhalgh is a British sailor who has competed in and won both the Volvo Ocean Race and the Extreme Sailing Series.
Neal McDonald is a British sailor who has competed in seven Volvo Ocean Races.
