P&B’s Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Focus, Why We’re Excited For Medals
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games are fast approaching, and at P&B, the excitement is building by the day. Of course, we’re most excited about the abundance of sailing we get to enjoy on the world’s biggest stage. Sailing at the Olympic Games has brought many involved with the sport at a regional and national level great pride over the years, and perhaps none more so than this year’s games.
Former P&B-sponsored sailor Vita Heathcote is preparing to participate in her first Olympics following her selection to represent Team GB in the mixed dinghy class. We’ll all be cheering Vita, Y&Y’s 2015 Youth Sailor of the Year, with immense pride as she heads to the Marseille Marina.
Follow our guide to see how you can cheer her along with us and learn more about P&B’s Olympic history, how you too can get involved with sailing and how we can help!
Table of contents
- P&B’s Olympic heritage
- How to watch sailing at the Paris 2024 Olympics
- What happened in sailing at the last Olympics?
- How to get involved in sailing
- Sailing at P&B
P&B’s Olympic Heritage
Vita is set to continue the P&B Olympic legacy, as Heathcote isn’t the only P&B alumni to have featured at the games. Just three years ago, former P&B sail loft employee Dylan Fletcher competed and won gold at Tokyo 2020!
The COVID-19-enforced delay of the games did nothing to deter Dylan, who secured Team GB’s first-ever gold medal in the Men’s 49er class with crew Stuart Blithell. Fletcher competed in the same class at Rio 2016, finishing sixth. Dylan’s efforts resulted in the London-born sailor being awarded an MBE for his services to sailing in the 2022 New Year’s Honours list.
Sydney 2000 was the talk of the sporting world as we entered the new millennium, and it was certainly the talk and focus of everyone involved with P&B as our former sailmaker Ian Barker brought home silver. Barker and crew Simon Hiscocks won a silver medal in the Men’s 49er class, while Finland won the gold. The Welshman continued his Olympic career in 2016 as he coached the Irish team in Brazil.
How to watch sailing at the Paris 2024 Olympics?
We all wish Vita the best of luck this summer in her efforts, and it would be an astonishing achievement for her to continue the run of P&B alumni winning medals at just 23 years old. We’ll all be watching, and you can too! Here’s a rundown of all the dates you need to be aware of for sailing at this year’s Olympics.
Schedule
All sailing events at the Olympics will take place at the Marseille Marina in the south of France. The port city will host races from Sunday, July 28 – to Thursday, August 8, starting with the Men’s & Women (windsurfing), Women’s 49erFX (skiff) and Men’s 49er (skiff).
Vita gets underway on Friday, August 2, in the 470 (mixed dingy), and her potential medal race will be on Wednesday, August 7. The final day of action will focus on the Men’s & Women’s Kite races as Ellie Aldridge and Connor Bainbridge compete for Team GB glory.
You can find the full sailing schedule here.
What channel is Olympic sailing on in the UK?
If you don’t want to miss a single second of scintillating sailing action this summer, you’ll need a subscription to Discovery+. Their £6.99 a month subscription gives you unlimited access to every Olympic event in France. If you don’t want to pay, the BBC will have a dedicated highlights show on iPlayer with select races airing live via the app or online.
What happened in sailing at the last Olympics?
We all know our boy Dylan helped bring a gold medal home for Team GB in the Men’s 49er, but what else made people take notice in Tokyo? Team GB were the most successful in sailing last time out, with another two golds coming from Hannah Mills & Eilidh McIntyre in the Women’s 470, while Giles Scott defended his Finn Men’s title he first captured in 2016 to win his second gold medal.
GB’s total medals were increased to five thanks to the efforts of John Gimson & Anna Burnet, who sealed silver in the Nacra 17 Mixed, and Emma Wilson, who won a bronze medal in the Women’s RS:X.
Looking to repeat the feat and return Team GB to the top of the sailing medals table are the following sailors:
| Name | Age | Class |
| Emma Wilson | 25 | Women’s iQFoil (windsurfing) |
| Sam Sills | 31 | Men’s iQFoil (windsurfing) |
| Freya Black | 23 | Women’s sSkiff (49erFX) |
| Saskia Tidey | 31 | Women’s Skiff (49erFX) |
| James Peters | 31 | Men’s sSkiff (49er) |
| Fynn Sterritt | 35 | Men’s sSkiff (49er) |
| Anna Burnet | 31 | Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17) |
| John Gimson | 41 | Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17) |
| Ellie Aldridge | 27 | Women’s Kite (Formula Kite) |
| Michael Beckett | 29 | Men’s Dinghy (ILCA 7) |
| Hannah Snellgrove | 34 | Women’s Dinghy (ICLA 6) |
| Vita Heathcote | 23 | Mixed Dinghy (470) |
| Chris Grube | 39 | Mixed Dinghy (470) |
| Connor Bainbridge | 30 | Men’s Kite (Formula Kite) |
How to get involved in sailing
Watching the best in the world compete in the biggest and greatest sports competition is exhilarating and, most importantly, inspiring. Sailing is an incredible activity that anyone can pick up competitively or leisurely, and we want to help!
You don’t need to be the most in shape and physically fit, but being comfortable in the water is key. Part of learning always involves trial and error, so expect to find yourself in the water a bit when getting started.
A key aspect of getting involved in sailing is versatility. Find the kind of sailing for you and go for it! Even if you just start with the basics, you can branch out and find your favourite afterwards.
Your first step will be to find a local instructor, but once that first lesson is booked, you’ll need some kit! P&B is your one-stop shop for all sailing clothing essentials. We stock everything from wetsuits & drysuits to dinghy boots and casual wear, so you have everything you need, whether racing at speed or simply taking in the peace of the water.
Sailing at P&B
Along with stocking excellent clothing from trusted brands such as Zhik, Gill and Musto, at P&B we have everything you need to enjoy sailing to its full potential. For younger sailors, we recommend the Optimist boat built by our experienced team, trusted especially by WINNER to sell this package.
P&B have received this level of trust for years across the industry, and part of what makes that so special is our location.
Based in Northampton, we’re about as far away from open water as you can get in the UK. Despite this, we’ve become a high-performance and World Championship-winning team thanks to the hard work, passion and dedication of everyone who steps through the P&B door.
That passion and love for sailing always shines through in our team when an event on the scale of the Olympics comes around. We sincerely hope you enjoy watching the sailing at the Olympics this summer. We know we will!
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