| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname | Micky | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 27 March 1995 [1] Solva, Pembrokeshire, Wales [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Class | ILCA 7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Solva Sailing Club [2] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Michael "Micky" Beckett OLY (born 27 March 1995) is a British sailor who won a gold medal at the 2021 ILCA European Championships and silver at the 2023 Sailing World Championships. He represented Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Beckett began competing aged 10 after learning to sail on his father's handmade boat. [3]
He won his first major medal when he claimed silver at the 2018 Laser European Championships in La Rochelle, France. [4] [5]
Beckett was part of a historic one-two-three for Great Britain at the 2020 ILCA European Championships in Gdansk, Poland, as he took silver with teammates Elliot Hanson and Lorenzo Chiavarini winning gold and bronze respectively. It was the first time that Britain had taken all three podium places at a major Laser class championship. [6] [7]
He finally won continental gold at the 2021 ILCA European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, taking the title with a race to spare after leading throughout the competition. [8] [9]
Beckett took a third European Championship silver medal at the 2022 championships in Hyeres, France. [10] [11]
He won silver at the 2023 Sailing World Championships in The Hague, Netherlands, and in doing so he clinched an ILCA 7 qualification spot for Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics. [12] [13]
In October 2023 Beckett was named among the first 10 members of the British Sailing Team for the Paris Games. [14] [15]
Despite being given a penalty in the qualifying section, Beckett took a bronze medal at the ILCA 7 World Championship in Adelaide, Australia, in January 2024. [16] [17]
He then won the prestigious Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta in Palma, Mallorca, Spain, for the third successive year at the 53rd edition in April 2024. [18] [19]
Beckett recovered from a difficult opening to his Olympic regatta to move into second place after day three thanks to two fourth place finishes. [20] However, he suffered a disqualification for being over the start line before the gun fired in the first race on day four and, despite an eighth place finish in the next race, dropped back to fourth going into the final day of the opening series. [21] A lack of sufficient wind saw those races cancelled leaving Beckett still in fourth ahead of the medal race. [22] [23] Having looked set to claim a medal only to see the race abandoned due to a shift in wind, Beckett was given three separate penalties when racing restarted and came 10th to end in sixth overall. [24] [25] [26]
Beckett has a Ship Science degree from the University of Southampton. [3] He worked as a television producer for the sailing events at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. [2]
The Laser is a class of single-handed, one-design sailing dinghies using a common hull design with three interchangeable rigs of different sail areas, appropriate to a given combination of wind strength and crew weight. Ian Bruce and Bruce Kirby designed the Laser in 1970 with an emphasis on simplicity and performance.
Sir Charles Benedict Ainslie is a British former competitive sailor. Ainslie is the most successful sailor in Olympic history. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at the four consecutive Games held between 2000 and 2012.
Tom Slingsby is an Australian competitive sailor. Slingsby's first successes came sailing Laser dinghies, where he won three consecutive world championships and the 2012 Olympic gold medal. Slingsby was the strategist for the America's Cup-winning Team Oracle USA in 2013. In 2016 he skippered the winner-of-line honours in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race line. Following this he skippered the Australian team in the inaugural SailGP competition.
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.
Luke Patience is a British Olympic sailor. He competed with Stuart Bithell at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the team won a silver medal.
Alison Young is a British sailor. She was the first British woman to be world champion in a solo Olympic dinghy class.
Giles Lyndon Scott is a British competitive sailor and four-time Finn Gold Cup winner and two-time Olympic gold medallist who won the gold medal for Team GB in the Finn Class at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where having dominated the class, Scott secured his place in the history books winning the gold medal with a day to spare. In January 2024, Scott took over the Driver role of the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team from Sir Ben Ainslie. He secured his first SailGP event win in Halifax, Canada, in June 2024. Scott is also part of Ainslie's British America's Cup Team, INEOS Britannia.
Christian Grube is a British sailor who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.
Charlotte Fletcher-Scott is a British sailor who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Saskia Tidey is a sailor who has represented both Ireland and Great Britain in international sailing regattas.
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.
Alexander Amos Yee is a British professional triathlete and distance runner. He won the gold medal in the Men's Triathlon at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the silver medal in the same event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the gold medal in the Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and the bronze medal in the same event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. With two golds, one silver, and one bronze medal, Yee is the most successful triathlete in Olympic history.
Elliot James Hanson is a British professional sailor and Olympian.
Shai Kakon is an Israeli Olympic sailor. She was the 2017 European Laser 4.7 Youth U16 Girl Champion, and World silver medalist. She was then the 2019 Youth Sailing World Championship Laser Radial Girls silver medalist. She competed for Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She won the 2022 European U21 Championship. Kakon represented Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics in sailing in Sailing/Laser Radial in Marseille, France, in which she came in 24th.
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.
Harry White, is a British competitive sailor. His greatest success came after being named British Young Sailor of the Year 2022., along with his brothers Charlie & Thomas White (
Freya Black is a British sailor who won a bronze medal at the 2024 49erFX European Championship. She represented Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
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 represented Great Britain at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Hannah Snellgrove is a British sailor who has represented her country at multiple world championships and the 2024 Summer Olympics in the ILCA 6 class.
Islay Watson is a Scottish British female windsurfer. She won two silver medals at the IQFoil European Championships in 2020 and 2021.
