Ainslie wins historic Olympic gold
Ben Ainslie becomes the most decorated Olympic sailor of all time after narrowly beating Danish rival Jonas Hogh-Christensen to win his fourth gold medal, and Team GB’s 15th of the 2012 Games.
Ainslie won the gold medal in the Finn class, and the fourth of his career, on Sunday, day nine of the Games at Weymouth.
Ainslie, who won silver in Atlanta prior to his three straight golds, came to London 2012 as overriding favourite to replace another Great Dane – Paul Elvstrom – as the most decorated Olympic sailor of all time.
After becoming incandescent with rage with the conduct of rivals in earlier stages of the Finn class, Ainslie took revenge in front of thousands of fans on the Dorset coast.
Ainslie accused them of teaming up against him, leading him to warn: “They’ve made me angry and you don’t want to make me angry.”
After his win, he told the BBC: “This was the time to do it, in front of a home crowd.
“It’s just been an amazing experience this Olympics and I can tell you that listening to a crowd like that makes a difference.”
He also said he would be very surprised if he competed in Rio 2016, adding it had been the hardest couple of weeks of his life.
Also in sailing, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson won silver in the star class on Sunday.
Ainslie’s gold brings the UK tally to 15 gold, eight silver and eight bronze medals at the 2012 Games, and overall third in the medals table behind the USA and China.
