One Person Dinghy (Finn), Men

The favorite was Britain’s Ben Ainslie, who had switched to the Finn class from the Laser, which he had won at the 2000 Olympics. He came to Athina having won the last three World Championships. He started slowly, however, finishing ninth in the first race and was disqualified in race two after a protest by France’s Guillaume Florent. Ainslie then went on a tear, winning four of the next eight races, and finishing no worse than fourth in any of them to take a big lead going into the final race, where he raced conservatively and finished 14th, but won the gold medal comfortably over his training partner, Spain’s Rafael Trujillo. Bronze went to the 1996 gold medalist in Finn, Poland’s Mateusz Kusznierewicz.

This was Ainslie’s third Olympic medal, after winning silver and gold in Laser in 1996 and 2000, respectively, but it was also the first of three consecutive golds he would win in the Finn class. After the 2012 Olympics, Ainslie had four straight sailing gold medals and five Olympic medals, an Olympic best equalled by Brazilians Robert Scheidt and Torben Grael.