Two Person Keelboat (Star), Men

Sweden’s Fredrik Lööf and Anders Ekström were narrowly leading going into the medal race, with Britain’s Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson in second, and Brazilians Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada third. Lööf and Ekström had a disastrous day in the medal race, placing last of the 10th crews, and dropping back into a tie with Brazil for second place. Percy and Simpson placed only fifth in the medal race but it was enough to bring them the gold medal. Percy had won Olympic gold in the Finn class back in 2000, and was the 2002 Star World Champion. He and Simpson would return in 2012 and add a silver medal in this class.

Brazil won the silver medal, based on having placed ahead of Sweden in the medal race. This was Scheidt’s fourth consecutive Olympic medal, having won gold in the Laser in 1996 and 2004, and silver in 2000. Prior to 2008 only two Olympic sailors (Paul Elvstrøm of Denmark and Valentyn Mankin of the Soviet Union) had won four consecutive medals, but four sailors would match this feat at Qingdao.

In 2012 it came to light that Peter O’Leary, Irish sailor who finished in 13th in this event, had actually bet 300 Euros on Great Britain to win the gold medal, eventually winning 3,600 Euros at 12-1 odds. He was given a warning by the IOC for violating their rules on betting on Olympic events, but no further sanction was given because his bet did not affect the outcome of the event.