[ad_1]
MARSEILLE: Britain’s sailing team has dominated the Olympic medal table for decades but faces new challenges in defending its crown with the advent of new events in 2024, team captain Mark Robinson said.
Great Britain won a record 30 gold medals and 63 sailing medals (including 21 silver and 12 bronze). Olympic statistics show that the British team has won more medals than any other national team since sailing was first introduced at the Olympics in 1900.
“Our government’s target remains to be three to five medals of any colour,” Robinson told Reuters in Marseille on the eve of the 2024 Olympics, where Britain’s success in aquatics has secured tens of millions of pounds in funding for the team.
UK Sport said on its website that sailing will receive 22.8 million pounds ($29.3 million) in revenue between 2021 and 2025, excluding prize money paid directly to athletes for their living and sporting expenses.
“The history of British sailing has always been that of a top nation and that means gold medals,” he said from the Mediterranean dock where the race begins on July 28.
Robinson said the French team was “dominant” and that new board sports such as Formula Kiteboarding and iQFOiL Windsurfing – in which France has a long tradition – helped them recruit talent from existing professional events.
For the British team it was a matter of “starting from scratch and switching from another level”, he said, adding that France might also have some home advantage.
France ranks third in the Olympic sailing medal table, just behind the United States, which ranks second.
“The team has more than enough to reach the government’s target… some would say more,” Robinson said, despite the strength of the other teams and the loss of the 470 women’s and Finnish men’s dinghy races, which they once dominated.
Robinson said that as a top country, everything depends on the trajectory of Olympic preparations.
“We are pretty strong. There are a lot of other countries that … might win two gold medals, but that’s it. The Dutch might win two dinghies.”
“Can we win five medals? Of course we can,” said Robinson, who led the British sailing team for seven years and coached four national teams during his 25 years in sailing.
“Can we win more? If we are lucky and the weather conditions are in our favor, maybe we can,” he added.
($1 = 0.7772 GBP)
[ad_2]
Source link
