| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 4 April 1991 [1] Portsmouth, England | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||
| Class | Laser | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Sam Meech (born 4 April 1991) is a New Zealand sailor who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. [3]
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 4 April 1991 [1] Portsmouth, England | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) [2] | ||||||||||||||
| Sailing career | |||||||||||||||
| Class | Laser | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Sam Meech (born 4 April 1991) is a New Zealand sailor who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. [3]
Meech was born in Portsmouth, England, in 1991. [2] The sailor Molly Meech is his younger sister; almost exactly two years his junior. [4] When he was three and a half years old, their parents gave up their house and the family lived on a boat for the next decade; the siblings attribute their affinity to water to this period of their lives. [5] He received his secondary education at Tauranga Boys' College, where fellow Olympic sailors Jason Saunders (born 1990) and Peter Burling (born 1991) were his contemporaries. [6]
Meech finished 34th in the Laser class at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and won a Halberg emerging talent award in 2011.
In 2013 he won the men's Laser race at the Sail for Gold competition and in 2014 he won the men's Laser competition at the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup. He was part of the New Zealand team that won the 2013 Youth America's Cup. [7]
Close friends Meech and Andy Maloney had an intense battle to win New Zealand's selection for the one quota spot for the 2016 Summer Olympics. [8] [9] Meech won a bronze medal in the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup sailing regatta in Miami (USA) in January, and a silver medal at a later regatta in Hyères (France) in April; these results won him the selection over Maloney. [10] Meech and Josh Junior made up the last two Olympic nominees of the New Zealand sailing team in May 2016. [11] Meech won a bronze medal in the Laser class; the first time that a New Zealand competitor has won an Olympic medal in this class. [8] His sister, Molly Meech, also competed for New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics in the 49er FX class alongside Alex Maloney, the sister of Andy Maloney. [4]
Tauranga Boys' College is a state secondary school for boys, located on the edge of the downtown area of Tauranga, New Zealand. The school was founded in 1946 as Tauranga College, before overcrowding saw the school become single-sex in 1958. The school has a roll of 1,764 students from years 9 to 13 as of February 2024. In 2019 Tauranga Boys' gained the most scholarships in the Bay of Plenty region with 31 scholarships and 6 outstanding scholarships.
Robert Scheidt is a Brazilian sailor who has won two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze from five Olympic Games and a Star Sailors League Final. He is one of the most successful sailors at Olympic Games and one of the most successful Brazilian Olympic athletes, being one of only two to earn five medals along with fellow sailor Torben Grael, and the only Brazilian sailor to win medals in both dinghy and keelboat classes.
Xu Lijia is a Chinese sailboat racer who won a bronze medal in women's Laser Radial class at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a gold medal in the same event at the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she was the flag bearer for China at the closing ceremony.
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.
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
Philipine van Aanholt is a female sailor from Curaçao, competing mainly in the Laser Radial class. She is a two-time Women World Champion in non-Olympic classes. In 2008 and 2009 she was chosen Curaçao's Youth Sports Women of the year. After the National Olympic Committee of the Netherlands Antilles lost its recognition by the International Olympic Committee following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, van Aanholt was allowed to participate in the 2012 Summer Olympics as an Independent Olympic Athlete. In 2016, she represented neighboring island Aruba at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She was Aruba's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2023, she won silver in the Sunfish class at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Joanna Ayela Aleh is a New Zealand sailor. She is a national champion, a former world champion, and an Olympic gold medallist.
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.
Jason Saunders is a New Zealand sailor.
Sailing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was held from 8–18 August at Marina da Gloria in Guanabara Bay. The sailing classes had two changes from the 2012 Summer Olympics events. There were 10 events.
Laura Jane Baldwin is a British sailor who competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics sailing the Europe dinghy.
Singapore competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's sixteenth appearance at the Summer Olympics, except for two different editions. Singapore was part of the Malaysian team at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but did not attend at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, because of its support for the United States boycott.
Cyprus competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's tenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
New Zealand competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's twenty-third appearance as an independent nation at the Summer Olympics, having made its debut at the 1920 Games and competed at every Games since. The New Zealand team consisted of 199 athletes, 100 women and 99 men, across twenty sports, the first time New Zealand was represented by more women than men at the Summer Olympics.
Cook Islands competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's eighth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Charlotte Fletcher-Scott is a British sailor who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics.
Molly Meech is a New Zealand sailor.
Alexandra Maria Maloney is a New Zealand sailor.
Josh Junior is a New Zealand Olympic and international sailor.
Andrew Maloney is a New Zealand professional sailor born on 2 June 1990.
