Eric Jespersen

The son of a Danish-born Canadian boat builder, Eric Jespersen competed in his first major international tournament, Canada’s Swiftsure International Yacht Race, at the age of 12. Among the many races in which he sailed were two successive editions of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the competition that decides the challenger for the America’s Cup, in 1983 and 1987. In the former, Jespersen’s yacht, the Canada I, reached the semifinals, where they were eliminated by the Victory ’83 of Great Britain. In 1991 he partnered with Ross MacDonald and entered the Star Class event at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where they captured the bronze medal in the final race. Perhaps their greatest success, however, came at the 1994 Star World Championships, where they won the gold medal by one point over the Brazilian crew of Alan Adler and Rodrigo Meirleles. They dropped to ninth at the 1995 edition, but rose to sixth in 1996, the same year that they placed fourteenth at the Summer Olympics after being disqualified in the first two races of the tournament. The duo split after the Games, but both continued to compete internationally. Outside of competitive yachting, Jespersen runs his father’s boat building business in North Saanich, British Columbia. He was inducted into the British Columbia (1998) and the Greater Victoria (2003) Sports Halls of Fame.