Skiff (49er), Men

After claiming silver in 2012, New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke became the top crew in the 49er class winning 27 consecutive regattas, including all four World Championships between the Games. With three race wins, and a lowest placing of sixth in the preliminaries, the Kiwis secured the gold medal before sailing the medal race. But unlike other classes, where the guaranteed winners tried not to take any chances, Burling and Tuke dominated the medal race with a perfect performance. With this final victory they increased their lead to an incredible 43-point margin. Burling was only 25 years old at the Rio Olympics, and both sailors are among Team New Zealand for the 2017 America’s Cup with Burling as skipper. They were named Sailors of the Year in 2015 and were nominated again in 2016. Prior to the medal race, only two boats could win the other two medals: Germany with Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel on 67 points after the preliminaries, and the 2012 gold medalists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen of Australia just three points behind. All other teams were out of reach. Australia finished fourth in the medal race while Germany could only finish eighth and the Australians took silver, while Germany’s bronze was their only sailing medal in Rio. Jensen and Outteridge, as Skipper, will also take part in the 2017 America’s Cup, as part of Sweden’s team. In 2015, Erik Heil contracted an infection, probably from the polluted water in Guanabara Bay, but after their bronze medal success both German sailors jumped into the water to celebrate, with Heil claiming that it: “Was much better this year”.