Queen Mary Sailing Club is a proud supporter of the GBR Olympic and Paralympic Teams.

As the home club of past Olympic Gold Medallists Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb, and as the home of current Skandia Team GBR members Andrew Mills (Finn) and Alexandra Rickman (SKUD) we will be supporting the team in the run up to 2012

There are several ways you can follow the GBR sailing team in their run up to the 2012 Olympics

Sign up online as a member of the Support Crew or follow the team on Twitter

Great Britain has a proud heritage of medallists going back all the way to Paris in 1900 Follow the link to see just how many medals we have won since then!

1. Sailing is one of the oldest sports on the Olympic programme. It was first contested at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games on the River Seine.
2. Early on the sailing was dominated by bigger boats, sometimes with a crew of 10-12 sailors. From the 1950’s onwards the trend has been towards smaller and smaller one-design boats. Today’s boats reflect the latest developments in the sport.
3. The first woman to win an Olympic Sailing medal was Frances Rivett-Cama from Great Britain, who won gold in London 1908.
4. Great Britain was the most successful Sailing nation at Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Games – winning four of the 11 gold medals.
5. Women have always been allowed to take part in Olympic Games sailing competition, but events for women were only introduced at Seoul 1988.
6. The sports name was changed from ‘Yachting’ to ‘Sailing’ at the Sydney 2000 Games.
7. Windsurfing was introduced as a sailing event at the Los Angeles 1984 Games. Women competed on equal terms against the men until their own discipline was introduced in 1988.
8. Sailing first appeared at the Paralympics as a demonstration sport at the 1996 Atlanta Games.  In 2000 it was included in the Paralympic Games Competition programme as a medal sport with events for the Sonar (three person keelboat) and the 2.4mR (single-person keelboat).