Matt Wearn: First ever Olympic defense

Marseille, France (August 7, 2024) – The Men’s Dinghy is one of 10 Sailing events held at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Using the ILCA 7 equipment, 43 nations completed a 8-race Opening Series on August 1-5, with the top 10 advancing to the Medal Race on August 6. When light air prevailed that day, the double-point Medal Race was postponed to today to finalize the cumulative results. Here’s the final report:

For all competition reports, click here.

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Matt Wearn (AUS) has become the first ever sailor to successfully defend the Olympic title in the notoriously competitive ILCA 7 dinghy class. No man or woman has achieved this before.

In some ways his first Olympic victory was more remarkable because Wearn had a terrible first day at Tokyo 2020 after suffering gear failure from his supplied equipment. The Australian had a mountain to climb yet somehow hauled himself back into medal contention, especially as the wind picked up and he was able to exert his super strength in full hiking conditions. In fact, he managed to win gold with the Medal Race to spare.

His path to glory was simpler in Marseille, yet he didn’t quite manage to square away the gold before the Medal Race. At first, Wearn attempted to match race his rival, Pavlos Kontides (CYP), until the opening attempt at the Medal Race was abandoned. In the second installment, the fleet leader decided to go all out and stormed to victory in the crucial race to clinch gold in Marseille.

“Tokyo was a pretty special time in the sense that no one had really raced each other for a long time [due to COVID isolation], but I think some the conditions here in Marseille were maybe tougher and the fleet more competitive, so that’s probably why the points were closer here,” said Wearn.

Also remarkable about Wearn’s achievement is that Australia has now taken gold at four consecutive Games. It started with Tom Slingsby’s runaway victory at London 2012, then Tom Burton’s last-gasp Medal Race win at Rio 2016, and now Wearn’s wins at Tokyo and Paris. Wearn paid tribute to the team behind his success and in particular to his coaches, Michael Blackburn and Rafa Trujillo.

Cyprus – Silver
Kontides, appearing in his fifth Olympic Games, recreated the magic of London 2012 – where he picked up a silver medal – crossing the finish line right behind Wearn to take another Olympic silver.

“I’m over the moon, I had tears of joy sailing back to the shore,” shared Kontides. “And then I was with my wife, my family, my friends who were supporting me. A second Olympic medal for my country and it came from myself.”

Peru – Bronze
Completing the top three was Peru’s Stefano Peschiera who, despite finishing ninth in the Medal Race, managed to hold on to take home a famous bronze which is Peru’s first Olympic medal in 32 years.

“It’s hard to describe how this feels,” admitted Peschiera. “It took a lot of hard work and it came out positively throughout the week and finally closing out the chapter is such a relief, after such a tough race.

“I try to be a perfectionist so I’m never going to celebrate until I know that that’s my medal so I think that’s what got me here. I wanted to ask my coach and when he confirmed it, I had a roller coaster of emotions.”

To watch video replay, click here.

Final Results:
1. Matt Wearn (AUS)
2. Pavlos Kontides (CYP)
3. Stefano Peschiera (PER)
16. Juan Maegli (GUA)
34. Pedro Luis Fernandez Gamboa (PUR)
38. Thad Lettsome (IVB)

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Medal Count (G-S-B) – Six of 10 events completed
Netherlands: 2-0-1
Australia: 1-1-0
Israel: 1-1-0
Italy: 1-0-0
Spain: 1-0-0
Cyprus: 0-1-0
Denmark: 0-1-0
New Zealand: 0-1-0
Sweden: 0-1-0
Great Britain: 0-0-1
France: 0-0-1
Norway: 0-0-1
Peru: 0-0-1
USA: 0-0-1

Source: World Sailing