Ben Ainslie (born 5 February 1977, Macclesfield) is a British sailor and two-times Olympic gold medalist.
Started sailing at the age of 4 and first competed at the age of 10. Ben's first International competition was the Optimist (dinghy) 1989 World Championship's held in Japan where he placed 37th.
Ben was a gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial World Championship, gold medalist at the 1993 Laser Radial European Championship, silver medalist at the 1994 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Marathon, Greece and gold medalist at the 1995 IYRU World Youth Sailing Championship in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Ben won silver at the 1996 Summer Olympics and Gold in the 2000 Summer Olympics in the Laser class. He put on forty pounds and moved to the larger Finn class for the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won gold.
The son of Roderick 'Roddy' Ainslie, who captained a boat that took part in the first Whitbread Round The World Race in 1973, he won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships in 1995, and was awarded the title of British Yachtsman of the Year in 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2002. He is also the holder of an MBE.
During 2005 Ben was working in the role of Tactician in the New Zealand based Emirates Team New Zealand who are preparing to compete in the challenger selection process to win the right to Challenge for the Americas Cup held by Alinghi.
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