Paul Elvstrøm

Paul Elvstrøm (born February 25, 1928, Hellerup, Denmark—died December 7, 2016, Hellerup) was a Danish yachtsman who is considered the greatest sailor in Olympic history, dominating Finn-class sailing between 1948 and 1960. He won four consecutive gold medals in monotype (single-person) sailing—in the Firefly class in 1948 and thereafter in the new Finn class. He was the first Olympic athlete to take individual golds in four consecutive Games.

Elvstrøm learned to sail when he received a small dinghy as a schoolboy. He was 20 years old when he first competed in international yachting at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. After five races, Elvstrøm was in eighth place and trailed by more than 800 points, but he won the last two races to capture the gold medal. He pioneered the technique of leaning back over the water from the knees and revolutionized training for the sport. Elvstrøm handily won the gold medal at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, finishing almost 3,000 points ahead of the other competitors. He also had easy victories at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and the 1960 Games in Rome. During this time he established (1954) the company Elvström Dinghy Sails (now Elvstrøm Sails) and later introduced a number of innovative products, notably a self-bailer and a life jacket designed for competitive sailing, both of which remained standard equipment in competition into the 21st century.

Elvstrøm’s success and celebrity brought personal stress, and, as a result, he chose to attend the 1964 Games in Tokyo only as an observer. He returned to Olympic competition in 1968 but did not medal. At the 1972 Games in Munich, under the pressures of competition and his failing sail-making business, he suffered a nervous breakdown. Elvstrøm returned to the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles, where he sailed the Tornado catamaran with one of his daughters, Trine Elvstrøm-Myralf, as crew. The pair also competed in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, his last appearance at the Games.

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Elvstrøm wrote a series of influential books on racing. In 1996 he was named Danish Sportsman of the Century, and in 2007 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Sailing Federation Hall of Fame.