The 44Cup has its fair share of Olympic sailors, from tacticians to crew, most packed on to Artemis Racing, including triple Olympic medallist Iain Percy and bronze medallist Anders Ekström while their regular tactician reigning Dylan Fletcher is the reigning 49er gold medallist.
For the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina, Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team is trialling gold and silver medallist Will Ryan on mainsheet 470. Ryan has been part of the extraordinary Australia Olympic 470 medal-making machine that saw their men’s crews win gold in four out of the last six Olympic Games, and podiuming in five. Ryan was part of the last two of these, winning silver in Rio then gold in Tokyo with helm Matt Belcher. With the change of classes for Paris 2024, so Ryan has shelved his Olympic aspirations. “The racing you do in the Olympics is phenomenal and I miss it a lot. I was so happy with where our program got to with Matt that now to go back into that space I would have such high expectations.”
