Boris Budnikov

Boris Budnikov was a Soviet sailor who competed at three Olympic Games, winning a silver medal. Budnikov won gold and three more silvers at the European Championships, and a silver at the World Championships.

Budnikov first became interested in sailing at a young age with lakeside holidays with his grandmother and being allowed to steer his uncle’s yacht. Whilst he was still in school several new yacht clubs were established at nearby reservoirs, with him joining one of the youth clubs. In 1954, when Budnikov was just 12-years-old, he won his first competition with victory at the Energia Youth Sports School Championship. He competed in multiple races in Moskva, beating older and more experienced competitors.

During the mid-1950s Budnikov’s main rival was Lev Rvalov, with the rivalry lasting until 1959 when their local club introduced the Finn class. Budnikov took up the new class and became the Moskva champion in 1960. After improving his physique through gymnastics, athletics, and skiing, he then moved to compete in the Star class. He also studied the theory behind sailing using periodicals that had been translated from English into Russian. Budnikov continued to compete in the Star class until 1972. He then moved to the Tempest class in the following year, winning the Baltic regatta and the USSR Championship.

Budnikov competed at the 1972 München Olympics, finishing in ninth place with Vladimir Vasilyev in the Star class. Four years later at the 1976 Montréal Olympics he just missed out on a medal with a fourth-place finish in the Soling class. At his home Olympics in Moskva in 1980 Budnikov won silver in the Soling along with Nikolai Poljakov and his younger brother Aleksandr. The trio also won the gold medal at the 1980 European Championships in Soling.

Budnikov continued to compete as a professional sailor until 1986 before working as the head coach of the USSR national team until 1992. In 2011 Budnikov was named the Yachtsman of the Year and he later became the first honorary veteran of sailing of the All-Union Federation of Sailing Sports.