Sarah Ayton

Like many of the top Olympic Classes sailors she began sailing in an Optimist dinghy. After making the jump to the Laser Radial class, Ayton decided she wanted to start racing and from a very early age showed real talent. It wasn’t long before Ayton reached the dizzy heights of British Number one and at the age of 18 won a silver medal at the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships in 1998. This was Ayton’s first taste of the podium and she hasn’t looked back since.

On turning professional in 1999, Ayton moved into the highly competitive Europe class, where she became training partner to Shirley Robertson for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Ayton and Shirley formed a bond while training in the Europe class and decided to compete together, along with Sarah Webb, in the larger Yngling keelboat class. Two years of hard training and competing resulted in the girls’ first podium at the Olympic Test Event in Athens in 2002 winning bronze. After their triumph in Athens, Ayton, Webb and Robertson put together a string of fantastic results including three golds at Olympic Classes events. These results were enough to ensure their selection for the Athens Games. The affectionately named ‘Three Blondes in a Boat’, walked away with a gold medal from the Games after an intense week of racing. Ayton was further rewarded for her success on the water in Athens, when she was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

Since winning in Athens, the two Sarah's parted company with Robertson and needed to find a new crew member to mount their own Olympic campaign, which saw Ayton taking over the role of helmsman. Sisters Emma and Victoria Rawlinson provided temporary support, but at the beginning of 2007 Pippa Wilson, a young 470 sailor, was asked to join the Aytons’ crew on a permanent basis and the trio have since made the podium at every major regatta they’ve competed in. The team won their first title together at the Holland Olympic Classes Regatta in May 2007, and were crowned World Champions at the ISAF World Championships in Cascais also winning gold at the 2007 Olympic Test Event in Qingdao, China, to secure their Beijing Olympic nomination.

To read more please click here: http://www.ynglinggirls.com

Last Updated August 2009