Olympic hero Ben Ainslie to focus on America’s Cup

Ainslie had said he wanted to take some time to decide his future after winning his fourth consecutive gold medal in the Finn class at the London Olympics. The 35-year-old’s exploits at Weymouth in August made him the most successful Olympic sailor ever. He also won a silver medal at Atlanta in 1996 in his first Olympics.

“When I look back there are so many special memories. From that first medal in Atlanta 16 years ago to carrying the flag at the closing ceremony in London 2012,” Ainslie said. “London was an incredibly special Olympics, competing on home waters and in front of a home crowd, I don’t think anything will be able to top that. But you have to move forward and it is time to move onto the next challenge in my career.”

He has already sailed in two America’s Cup World Series regattas with his Ben Ainslie Racing team, finishing  second in one of them.

Ainslie was so successful as an Olympian that he was called Britain’s greatest sailor since Admiral Lord Nelson, who was killed while leading his fleet to  victory over the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Ainslie dismissed the hype. “I didn’t rescue the nation from the depths of Napoleon Bonaparte,” he said.

“You do the best you can do in your style of racing.”

Ainslie was 19 when he took silver in the 1996 Olympics in a bitter loss to Brazil’s Robert Scheidt in the Laser class.  Scheidt induced Ainslie into a penalty at the start of the final race and then sailed to gold.

That was the last time Ainslie didn’t stand on the top step of the podium. Four years later, he exacted his revenge in Sydney Harbour by beating Scheidt.

After moving up to the heavyweight Finn class, Ainslie had another remarkable performance at Athens in 2004. Disqualified from his second-place finish in the second race due to a protest by a French sailor, he fought back from 19th overall to win the gold.

Now his racing shifts to bigger, faster boats. He’ll skipper his 45-foot wing-sailed catamaran in the remaining  regattas in the America’s Cup World Series and then sail with defending America’s Cup champions Oracle  Racing in the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco Bay in 2013. It’s expected that he’ll helm one of Oracle’s two 72ft catamarans in the build-up to the match. Oracle suffered a setback when its first 72ft catamaran capsized last month, destroying its giant wing sail. Oracle’s  second boat is under construction.

Ainslie’s goal is to launch a British challenge for the 35th event. Britain has never won the America’s Cup, which began in 1851 when the schooner America beat a fleet of British ships around the Isle of Wight.

Ainslie lives in Lymington, across the Solent from the Isle of Wight. He said: “The America’s Cup has always been a goal for me. With the new format and the increased commercialisation of the event, I feel confident that we can build toward creating a commercially viable team, with the ultimate goal of  challenging for the 35th America’s Cup.”