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Sailors selected to compete for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games including Team Volvo's Ben Ainslie, Nick Dempsey, 470 Girls- Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills and the Match Race Girls - Annie Lush and Sisters Lucy and Kate Macgregor

Sailing is the first sport to have athletes formally selected by the British Olympic Association (BOA) for London 2012, and triple Olympic champion Ainslie’s selection means he is set to be the only Brit competing for a fourth gold medal at consecutive Games’.

Ainslie said: “Having my selection for 2012 confirmed is a big relief. Each nation is only given one place per class and we have a huge amount of sailing talent in the GB Finn Class with four sailors in the top five world rankings, so qualification is a huge part of the process. After two years out of the Finn I came back in November last year and I knew the pressure would be on to get back physically and tactically to my best.

“I probably sailed my best during qualification at June’s Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta. It was one of the hardest events I’ve competed in, and winning there was decisive. Now it’s all about getting the plans right for my fitness and preparation to peak at the Olympics. You don’t want to burnout and the Olympics are the end goal.” Check out Ben's awesome new promo HERE

Sailors selected to compete for Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games including Team Volvo's Ben Ainslie, Nick Dempsey, 470 Girls- Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills and the Match Race Girls - Annie Lush and Sisters Lucy and Kate Macgregor

The eight sailors discovered their fates in morning phone calls from the RYA’s Olympic Team Manager Stephen ‘Sparky’ Park last Thursday but, apart from the odd sworn to secrecy call to parents and close family members, had to keep schtum for five agonising days.  

So with that in mind, how did the 470 duo of Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills celebrate their incredible selection, which comes just seven months after they first started sailing together?

By watching a Harry Potter DVD of course!

Mills, who will become the first Welsh sailor to represent Team GB at an Olympics since Ian Barker at Sydney 2000, explains: “I have loved Harry Potter ever since I was at junior school and our class won a national competition to go to London to meet J.K Rowling and have a party at a mocked-up platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station. I was disgusted when Sas told me she hadn’t ever read a Harry Potter so I bought her the DVD box set for her birthday.

“After the call from Sparky, I literally couldn’t take it in that we were selected, I genuinely thought the call was going to say our trials were being extended, it took about half an hour to sink in. We needed something to calm us down so we sat and watched the Half Blood Prince! I still haven’t really come down off cloud nine yet but for all the progress Sas and I have made in the past seven months, we know this is where it takes off and gets serious.”

Clark, who was sixth with Christina Bassadone at Beijing 2008, added: “I got a call from my boyfriend Paul (Goodison) at 8.30am to say he was selected, which was amazing news, but Hannah and I didn’t know if we would get a call at 9am or 5pm so we just sat at my house drinking copious amounts of tea! When Sparky called at 9.15am it was amazing.

“Although from the outside it looks like Hannah and I have had a very quick rise, it has been an unbelievably tough year involving such hard work. We have had to prove ourselves at every regatta to get to this point. Being selected now really gives us the chance to focus the rest of our campaign firmly on next summer and spend as much time as possible training in the 2012 Olympic venue at Weymouth and Portland.”

For Goodison hearing Clark’s news meant a double celebration. The 2008 Olympic Laser class champion was in Palma on a training bike ride ahead of the Melges 32 Worlds when he got his call from Sparky.  But he admits it wasn’t until he heard from Clark an hour later that he could really let himself smile.

Bronze for Paul Goodison, Weymouth and Portland International Regatta 2011

“It was a big relief when Sparky rang. This has been by far the hardest trials I have had since Ben (Ainslie) was selected ahead of me for Sydney 2000. Even though I had done everything the selectors had been looking for, there was always that niggling doubt in my mind that they could still extend the trials so I’m just really pleased to have the early selection and have almost the full year to prepare solely for the Games.

“When Sas called me to say they had been selected too I was so so pleased. It will be so much better for them being selected early. It will be the second Games Sas and I have done together and we do take a lot of support from one another when we are in the team camp. If I’m feeling under pressure, or have had a bad day, she is definitely the person I speak to and the fact that we both understand what the other is going through helps. It can be a balancing act if one of you has had a good day, and the other is disappointed, but generally you try to keep a level emotional state as best you can throughout every event.” Check out Paul's journey so far HERE

Lucy and Kate Macgregor will make history when they take to the start line at London 2012, becoming the first British sisters to compete in sailing at the same Games.

Growing up in Poole, the young Macgregors, along with other sister Nicky, were never off the water. Even still, Kate admits the thought that one day she would be selected to compete at an Olympics with her big sister was a dream.

Kate, 20, said: “When we sailed Mirrors together as kids me and Lucy would bicker and argue a lot but we definitely got all the fighting out of the way when we were younger! We have grown up and sailed with a lot of different people since those argumentative days. I’ve know Annie for years too so as the three of us we are a pretty chilled out boat.”

Lucy, 24, added: “We're delighted with our selection for the Games. To be in Weymouth next summer competing on home waters for an Olympic medal will be a very special couple of weeks. Also to be sharing it with one of my best friends and my sister makes it even more exciting and we're looking forward to the challenges over the next nine months”

Whereas for the rest of his Team Volvo for Life stablemates there were a few nails bitten waiting for the call from Sparky, for Nick Dempsey the official nod  that he would be going to his fourth successive Games was merely a formality.

But knowing the importance of ‘Big Thursday’, as it became known in the team ranks, for the rest of the British sailors still had him on tenterhooks.

Nick said: “I used to get so excited when Sparky rang me to say I was in so I know what everyone else was going through. Because I don’t really have any competition for the British windsurfing spot at the moment this campaign has always been about trying to win an Olympic gold medal for me. In many respects it helps being able to focus solely on next summer and not have to peak for qualification events throughout the year.

“I went to my first Olympics in Sydney when I was 19 and it was so, so, so exciting. Just silly things like going into the venue and there being fridges full of free drinks. I used to fill my rucksack everyday! By Athens I knew a bit more about what it was all about and maybe wasn’t quite so excitable.

“It is hard though. When it is your first Olympics you have to try to think of it as just another sailing event that you have to perform at. At the same time you want to enjoy it because it is the Olympics, but everything is so big and in your face. The best thing those sailors making their debuts at London 2012 can do is make sure that first and foremost they are a good, solid team as a boat and with their support network. There is so much experience and advice available to draw on amongst the British team that having the confidence to ask for it can make such a difference. Everyone is very supportive and always glad to help if possible.”

And if all else fails there is always Saskia’s Harry Potter DVD collection to turn to!

Here's Team Volvo's final stage of their selection, the Pre- Olympic Test Event ...

Team GBR sailors selected today

Ben Ainslie, Triple Olympic gold medallist Finn class

Paul Goodison, defending Champion in the Laser

Nick Dempsey, RS:X Men’s Windsurfing

Bryony Shaw, RS:X Women’s Windsurfing

Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills, 470 Women’s class

Lucy Macgregor, Annie Lush and Kate Macgregor, Women’s Match Racing

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, defending Champions in the Star  

Follow Team Volvo sailor Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison, 470 Girls, Match Race Girls and Nick Dempsey on Facebook www.facebook.com/volvocarssailing and Twitter www.twitter.com/volvosailing    

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