Olympic sailing hopefuls star in National Portrait Gallery
As part of the lead up to the London 2012 Olympics, Britain’s brightest sport stars have been captured for a new photography exhibiton
A new exhibition featuring Olympic medal hopefuls, alongside the people responsible for staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games, has opened at the National Portrait Gallery.
Finlay Mackay has photographed a range of athletes with the people they named as being pivotal to their sporting success, including the world’s number one Women’s Match Racing team, Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor, with their coach Maurice Paardenkooper.
The yachtswomen were photographed at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. They learnt to sail at Poole Harbour when they were children, and have since triumphed in national, European and world championship titles.
“We had a good year last year but we felt we hadn’t reached our potential. Now we feel we can. With Maurice we’ve noticed the difference already. It’s ‘right, now let’s get on with it’,” said Lucy Macgregor.
The photograph will join portraits of fellow medal hopefuls including Paralympic double gold medallist swimmer Eleanor Simmonds and Aaron Cook, the first British person to rank number one in taekwondo.
These photographs will be exhibited alongside a collection by Emma Hardy, which captures the people responsible for staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games. One of the people starring in this collection is Christopher Holmes, a previous Paralympic gold medal winner, one of Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmers ever, and the LOCOG Director of Paralympic Integration.
The exhibition, titled ‘Road to 2012: Changing Pace’, is part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. It’s the second exhibition in a three-year cycle, funded by BT.
You can view behind-the-scenes films and photography, contribute your own portraits and watch video interviews with the photographers on the National Gallery’s website.