Pictures: Meet the GB sailing team for the 2016 Olympics
With the final four selected, these are the sailors who will be representing Great Britain in the 2016 Olympics in Rio this August.
The announcement of the final four sailors for Team GB comes less than 100 days until the start of the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Luke Patience, Chris Grube, Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign will join the 11 other athletes who have been selected for the sailing events at the 2016 Olympics.
See the pictures of the team members below
Speaking following the announcement, Team GB Sailing Team Leader and RYA Olympic Manager, Stephen Park said: “We’re delighted and proud to complete our Olympic Games line-up for Rio today, and congratulate Luke and Chris, Dylan and Alain on their selections for Team GB.”
“Finalising the Games team is always an exciting moment and allows us to now really focus on the final run-in and what it takes to win medals in the extremely challenging environment that Rio presents,” he continued.
British sailors have established a proud tradition of excellence in Olympic competition, having won 55 medals – including 26 golds – since sailing made its debut at the inaugural games in 1896.
Great Britain tops the overall Olympic sailing medal table.
Here is the list of the full 2016 GB sailing team:
Giles Scott (Finn); Nick Thompson (Laser); Alison Young (Laser Radial); Bryony Shaw (Women’s RS:X); Nick Dempsey (Men’s RS:X); Hannah Mills (Women’s 470); Saskia Clark (Women’s 470); Charlotte Dobson (49erFX); Sophie Ainsworth (49erFX); Ben Saxton (Nacra 17); Nicola Groves (Nacra 17); Luke Patience (Men’s 470); Chris Grube (Men’s 470); Dylan Fletcher (49er); Alain Sign (49er).
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Giles Scott
Giles Scott: Finn.
After missing out on London 2012 selection to the most decorated Olympic sailor of all time, Sir Ben Ainslie, 28-year-old Giles has dominated the Finn class in the build-up to Rio 2016 and is now unbeaten in two years. That winning streak includes victories at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships and twice at Rio Test Events with the most recent coming in August 2015.
Credit: Giles Scott/Twitter
Alison Young
Alison Young: Laser Radial.
The 28-year-old recently became the first Brit to win world gold in the solo Olympic dinghy class. She made her Olympic debut at the London 2012 Games, where she finished fifth in the Laser Radial class.
Alison secured a quota place for Team GB after recording a ninth place finish at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships, following a silver medal at the Rio Test Event a month earlier.
Credit: British Sailing Team
Nick Thompson
Nick Thompson: Laser.
Nick took Laser gold at the 2004 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships, and since then, the Lymington sailor has been a regular on the podium at senior level. Highlights including bronze medals at the 2009 and 2014 World Championships and silver in 2010 and 2011. The 29-year-old finally claimed the top spot of the podium at this summer’s Laser World Championships.
Credit: Nick Thompson/Twitter
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark
Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark: 470 Women.
The London 2012 silver medallists continue to excel with silver medals at the 2014 and 2015 Rio Test Events, bronze at the 2014 World Championships and World Cup gold on their home waters of Weymouth and Portland in June this year.
The pair first teamed up with 470 in February 2011.
Saskia is also a two-time Olympian having first had her taste of the Olympic Games at Beijing 2008 when she finished sixth in the women’s 470 class.
Bryony Shaw
Bryony Shaw: RS:X Women.
Beijing 2008 bronze medallist, Bryony Shaw has won medals at European and World Championships. In London 2012, she placed seventh. At the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships the 32-year-old finished fifth in the women’s RS:X class to qualify Team GB a quota spot for Rio 2016. In 2015, Bryony secured World Cup wins in Miami and Abu Dhabi as well as gold at the RS:X European Championships in Sicily.
Credit: British Sailing Team
Nick Dempsey
Nick Dempsey: RS:X Men.
The 35-year-old first competed at an Olympic Games at Sydney 2000 where he finished 16th in the Mistral class before becoming Team GB’s first-ever Olympic windsurfing medallist with bronze at Athens 2004.
Four years later at Beijing 2008 Dempsey just missed out on the podium, finishing fourth in the RS:X class, but the Norwich-born athlete added to his Olympic haul with silver in the same event at London 2012.
Credit: On Edition
Charlotte Dobson
Charlotte Dobson: 49erFX.
The 29-year-old first paired with 49erFX partner Sophie Ainsworth in 2013. A fifth and seventh in the 2014 and 2015 Rio Test Events preceded fifth place in the 2015 49erFX World Championships.
Credit: Charlotte Dobson/Twitter
Sophie Ainsworth
Sophie Ainsworth: 49erFX.
The 26-year-old paired with 49erFX partner Charlotte Dobson in 2013. A fifth and seventh in the 2014 and 2015 Rio Test Events preceded fifth place in the 2015 49erFX World Championships as the pair prepare for their Olympic Games debut at Rio 2016. Like Dobson, Ainsworth learnt to sail in an Optimist before going onto a 420 and 29er, where she became 2007 Youth and Ladies World Champion.
In the senior ranks, Ainsworth became a 470 European Champion in 2012 and was training partner for the London 2012 silver medal winning pairing of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark.
Credit: British Sailing Team
Nicola Groves and Ben Saxton
Nicola Groves and Ben Saxton: Nacra 17.
After partnering with Nicola Groves in September 2014, the pair saw immediate success in the Nacra 17 class with a seventh place finish at the 2014 Sailing World Cup Finals in Abu Dhabi.
In 2015, the pair won silver at the World Cup in Miami before becoming European Champions in September.
Credit: Ben and Nic Sailing/Twitter
Luke Patience and Chris Grube
Luke Patience and Chris Grube: Men’s 470.
After winning a silver medal at London 2012 alongside Stuart Bithell, Patience raced alongside Elliot Willis and the pair enjoyed a successful campaign, winning gold at the 2015 Miami World Cup and the 470 European Championships in 2014, silver at the Rio 2016 Test Event and a fourth place at the 2014 ISAF World Championships, which secured a quota place at the Olympic Games.
In late 2015, following Willis’s diagnosis for bowel cancer, Patience teamed up with Chris Grube.
Grube sailed with double Olympic medallist Nick Rogers in a bid to seal qualification for London 2012 but missed out to Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell.
Alongside Rogers, he finished tenth at the 2011 Sailing World Championships in Perth before teaming up with Bithell in 2013 in the 49er class.
He has previously sailed in the 470 with Patience.
Credit: Luke Patience/Twitter
Alain Sign and Dylan Fletcher
Alain Sign and Dylan Fletcher: 49er.
Fletcher teamed up with Sign after finishing second at the 29er World Championships in 2006. The duo have won two European Championship silver medals and earned their first 49er World Championship medal – a bronze – at the 2016 Worlds in Clearwater, USA before being selected for Rio 2016.
Sign started on Toppers before moving into the 29er class, a feeder class for the Olympic 49er, winning the World Championships, Europeans and Nationals in 2004.
Credit: Dylan Fletcher/Twitter