Sarah Ayton

Sarah Ayton first came to prominence by placing second in the Laser Radial class at the 1998 World Youth championships. She then sailed in the Europe class of boat with moderate success but with the introduction of the Yngling class into the Olympics, Ayton and Sarah Webb were recruited by 2000 Olympic champion Shirley Robertson to be her crew with the intention of qualifying the boat for Athens. Initially the team, who self-deprecatingly dubbed themselves “Three Blondes in a Boat”, met with mixed results but at Beijing they excelled and won the gold medal without having to take part in the last race of the series. With Robertson taking time out to start a family Pippa Wilson replaced her to campaign towards Beijing with Ayton taking over as skipper. The trio were world champions in both 2007 and 2008 and extended that supremacy to the Beijing Olympics where they overcame the Dutch trio to claim gold. Ayton married fellow Olympic medallist Nick Dempsey after the Beijing Olympics, although they later divorced, and, after taking time off to start a family, returned to the water in 2011 in what eventually proved to be a fruitless attempt to qualify for the 2012 Games.