Sarah Ayton, one of Great Britain’s top sailors, having claimed not one but two Olympic gold medals, was the guest of honour at the reception which announced a key partnership between ‘The Best Of Weymouth and Portland’ and the free to market community newspaper ‘View From’. Weymouth resident, Sarah, took part in an informal ‘Q & A’ session with Team Dorset Legacy Manager Gary Fooks posing the questions. The ‘interview’ was both interesting and humorous as the Olympian gave an insight to her life and the demands of being an international athlete.
Born in Ashford (Middlesex) Sarah was not brought-up within a sailing family but was inspired to compete by the successes of sprinter Sally Gunnell (1992 Olympic 400 metre hurdle gold medallist). Sarah was however introduced to sailing by a family friend and first took to the water at the Queen Mary Sailing Club in Staines. Like many of the top Olympic Class sailors she began sailing in an Optimist dinghy. After making the jump to the Laser Radial class, Sarah decided she wanted to start racing and from a very early age showed real talent. It wasn’t long before she reached the dizzy heights of British Number one and at the age of 18 won a silver medal at the ISAF 1998 Youth Sailing World Championships.
This was Sarah’s first taste of the podium and she hasn’t looked back since.
It was aboard a Yngling keelboat that Sarah claimed her two Olympic golds and she related to the audience an amusing story with regard to the naming of the craft by its designer. Apparently, one day in 1967, a proud father named Jan Herman Linge sat down to design a boat for his young son, and he called it "Youngster" or Yngling in Norwegian). This one-design boat class has been the Women's Keelboat for recent Olympics.
Aboard a Yngling, Sarah, along with compatriots Sarah Webb and Shirley Robertson put together a string of fantastic results including three golds at Olympic Class events. These successes were enough to ensure their selection for the Athens Games. The affectionately named ‘Three Blondes in a Boat’, walked away with Athens gold after an intense and exciting week of racing.
Four years later a change in line-up saw Pippa Wilson replace Robertson as the two Sarahs targeted a second gold. On the waters of Qingdao, the trio won gold at the 2007 Olympic Test Event before replicating their winning form to secure the premier medal at the Beijing 2008 Games.
If you've ever wondered what thoughts are running through the heads of Olympians as they stand on the podium with their medal, Sarah offered the answer. Having been presented the Gold at Beijing Sarah noticed a circle of white on the reverse of her medal - she turned to her two team mates and was somewhat disturbed at the fact that after all their hard work, their medal had a piece of plastic on it - they were later informed that it was actually the precious gemstone Jade!
As if Sarah had not amassed sufficient quantities of rare metals she received an OBE in the 2009 New Years Honours list. The Queen had previously bestowed an MBE on the successful yachtswomen.
Having reflected on her astonishing career to date Gary Fooks enquired as to the sporting future for this obviously driven athlete. The answer was somewhat predictable. No sitting back for the married mother of one. Sarah lusts for gold number three and in her attempt to make that a reality Pippa Wilson will join her in the 470 class (following the demise of the Yngling category in the Olympics). Preparations for the Weymouth Olympic regatta is underway and Sarah claims, ‘Training in Weymouth is good. You open the curtains in the morning and the sea is there. You cannot ignore it. Winning gold together is what gets us out of bed in the morning. We love our sport and can’t wait to transfer our winning formula into the 470 class. We know how to win and we must apply that for 2012’.
Off the water Sarah’s life has changed markedly. In October 2008, just two months after Beijing, she married another Olympic medallist, Nick Dempsey, a windsurfer who had taken a bronze in the RSX class. If that was not change enough earlier this year they became parents when son Thomas-Flynn entered the world. When Gary probed as to the possibility of friction in the household regarding domestic chores Sarah advised that it was usually settled in her favour with a comment similar to ‘You make the tea loser’ in deference to the relative medal statistics of the couple. This comment was most certainly ‘tongue in cheek’.
Sarah acknowledged her parental responsibilities but is very aware that the 2012 Weymouth Sailing Olympics will not only be a great experience for the population of Weymouth but for son Thomas-Flynn as well. Having experienced the social inter-action of the international sporting community in both Greece and China she sees the benefits of such a mix of nationalities and cultures in the streets of Weymouth. A third gold medal would be a virtually unprecedented but Sarah is committed to that aim. If successful she would be the epitome of a proud sportswoman and young Thomas-Flynn would have an even more special mother.
