Iain Percy

Iain Percy learnt to sail at the age of four and was only seventeen when he made his début at the Laser Class European Championships. He campaigned in the Laser Class and finished fifth in the 1996 World championships but missed selection for the 1996 Olympic Games. A switch to the Finn Class followed and he went on to win the European Championship in 1998. Percy spent many months training and competing off Sydney in the years preceding the 2000 Olympics and it paid off handsomely when he won the Olympic title so comfortably that he did not even have to compete in the final race of the series. He swapped classes again in 2001 to the two-man Star boat but, although he and partner Steve Mitchell were world champions in 2002, they could not translate that success to the Athens Games. A year before the Beijing Games he teamed up with lifelong friend Andrew Simpson. Initial results were below par but at the 2008 Olympics they won the gold medal with their performance in the final race. They added the 2010 World Championship gold to their medal collection and remain one of the world’s top crews.