Personal information | |||||||||||||||
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Full name | Johannes Sebastian Polgar | ||||||||||||||
Nickname | Jojo | ||||||||||||||
Nationality | Germany | ||||||||||||||
Born | Olpe, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany | 25 August 1977||||||||||||||
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||
Weight | 74 kg (163 lb) | ||||||||||||||
Sailing career | |||||||||||||||
Class(es) | Multihull, keelboat | ||||||||||||||
Club | Norddeutscher Regatta Verein | ||||||||||||||
Coach | Rigo de Nijs (NOR) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Johannes Sebastian Polgar (born 25 August 1977) is a German sailor, who specialized in the multihull (Tornado) and keelboat Star) classes. [1] Together with his partner Florian Spalteholz, he was named one of the country's top sailors in the mixed multihull catamaran for the 2008 Summer Olympics, finishing in eighth place. [2] After the Games, Polgar decided to move into the Star class and eventually shared a gold-medal victory with his partner Markus Koy at the 2010 Europeans in Viareggio, Italy. [3] A member of North German Regatta Club (German : Norddeutscher Regatta Verein ), Polgar trained most of his competitive sailing career under the tutelage of his Norwegian-born personal coach Rigo de Nijs. [4]
Polgar competed for the German sailing squad, as a 30-year-old skipper in the Tornado class, at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to their maiden Games, he and crew member Spalteholz topped the selection criteria in a duel against brothers Tino and Niko Mittelmeier for the country's Tornado berth, based on their cumulative scores attained at two international regattas stipulated by the German Sailing Federation (German : Deutscher Segler Verband). [5] The German duo started off the race series in the middle of the fleet until the shifty wind conditions propelled them to the front on the final half with a single victory and a triad of top-five marks, making both Polgar and Spalteholz eligible for the medal race. [6] [7] An unforeseen capsize by the German duo on the initial run, however, saw their medal chances vanish, plummeting them further to eighth overall with 74 net points. [2] [8] [9]
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