Sir ben ainslie biography examples

From his silver medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta when he was just nineteen, Ben Ainslie went on to become the most successful sailor in the history of the Games, winning medals (including four golds) at five consecutive Olympics. 

As a young competitor, he won four World Championships in the Laser class before moving up to the Finn class and winning a further seven World Championship gold medals, thereby becoming one of the most decorated sailors of all time. 

He has also competed at the highest levels of professional yacht racing, including challenging for the famous America’s Cup, both as a team member and through his own team, Ben Ainslie Racing (that competed as Land Rover BAR). 

He is currently Team Principal, CEO, and Skipper of INEOS Britannia, competing for the 37 America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024. 

Sir Ben was knighted in 2013 for his services to sailing. 

There’s trouble brewing on the high seas this weekend. With Sir Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Team UK already four losses down in the race to seven wins against Prada, there’s some serious work required by him and his team to take control of the challenge. Those who think this could be a landslide win to Prada may want to get a little more clued-up on the man behind Ineos Team UK, and understand that this is a sailor with fire in his belly.

1. Ainslie is the most decorated sailor in Olympic history with four gold medals and one silver. His first one, a silver, was won in 1996 when he was aged 19. He won medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996 onwards, including gold at the four Games held between 2000 and 2012.

2. He has a famous temper on the water — for example, he was involved in a war of words with fellow sailors Jonas Hogh-Christensen and Pieter-Jan Postma during the 2012 Olympics when he claimed the two were ganging up against him.

3. Ben Ainslie’s wife, Lady Ainslie, is better known as Georgie Thompson and is a successful and highly respected TV and radio presenter in the UK.

4. Ainslie began sailing on an Optimist as a 9-year-old at Restronguet near Falmouth in England.

5. Upon receiving his Knighthood in 2013, he was quoted as saying, “For me, it is probably the proudest moment of my life and it’s even more special to be able to share it with my family and friends. It’s a huge honour and a day to remember, but life moves on to the future and the next project and challenge. For me it’s the America’s Cup, it started in Britain in 1851 and yet we haven’t won it and that’s something I feel is missing from our maritime history so it would be great if we can achieve that. We have a lot of great sailors in the UK so I hope that we can win the Cup, that’s the next challenge.”

6. Bad blood currently exists between his team INEOS Team UK and Luna Rossa after the

I love the Volvo race. My dad competed in the first ever around the world race, which back then was called the Whitbread Around the World Race, back in 1973. So growing up as a youngster I had all the stories around that, which was very inspiring.

I have done quite a lot of offshore racing but I have not had the opportunity to try the Volvo - maybe it is something I can do in the future. The Olympics and the America's Cup have been my focus up until now in my career so the Volvo is something I have not had time to have a crack at.

Have you ever thought of moving into the International Moths since seeing the hydro-foiling at the America's Cup? Alex Sharp ‏@SPAM_Official

That is a very good point because certainly with the America's Cup with the foiling, when the boats are lifting up on the foils, is what moth sailing is all about. Those guys are leading the way in that style of sailing so in terms of training or preparation for the bigger America's Cup boats the moth is a very good tool. I can imagine I will be doing a lot of moth sailing in the coming years.

The moths are so much fun to sail. It is like windsurfing, you are flying around at 40 miles an hour in a tiny little craft which is up on foils. They are very dynamic, very fast, a lot of fun. It is a totally different style of racing to what you see in, for example, the finn boat which I sailed in the Olympics. It is a new development of sailing and something that is a great training tool for the future.

Since you support Chelsea, what do you think of their prospect this season with the return of the Special One? Sivan John ‏@SivanJohn

I think their prospects are good. I am a big Jose Mourinho fan. It sounds like he has got himself into a little bit of trouble in the last week but I think that is all part of his game. I hope this time he can stay for a while and really build up a strong team again. His man-manag

Sailing’s very own ubermensch Sir Ben Ainslie has every right to be considered the world’s most competitive bloke. Those who knew him as a teenager say he always had just two ambitions: to bag a sackful of Olympic medals, and to win the America’s Cup for Britain. Well he didn’t have much trouble becoming the most successful sailor in Olympic history, with four golds and a silver. The America’s Cup, however – the ultimate challenge for yacht-racers – is proving a bit trickier.

You might think this is a preposterous event, bearing little relationship to anything you or I might mean by the word ‘boats’ or ‘sailing’ and pursued by very rich men for indeterminate reasons. Well, there’s some truth in that: it certainly hasn’t much in common with the red-trouser brigades of Cowes or Salcombe. But this is far from the whole story.