Paul Elvstrøm

Paul Bert Elvstrøm ( born February 25, 1928 in Copenhagen ) is a Danish sailor and the most successful racers, measured at world titles and Olympic medals.

Best Merits

Paul took Elvstrøm 1948-1988 eight times at the Olympics in part, by which he to the athletes with the most Olympic appearances he still is one at all. In the first four appearances, he won four gold medals in one discipline, what ever happened only four times in history (most recently Carl Lewis in the long jump from 1984 to 1996 ). At the 1968 Olympic Games before Acapulco he narrowly missed a medal in the Star class and also in 1984 against Los Angeles, when he with his youngest daughter Trine was launched in the Olympic Tornado catamaran.

Olympic Gold Medals

World Champion / World Champion

Paul Elvstrøm has won a total of 15 world titles in 8 different boat classes, a record that has thus far remained unmatched.

Honors

• Awarding of the golden star by the Danish royal family. An award that has received no other Danish sports today.
• 1990 Beppe Croce Trophy ceremony of the ISAF. This high-level honorary award is given only to persons who have demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to the sport of sailing in their lives.
• 1992 induction into the Hall of Fame of the Danish Sports
• 1996 Awarded the title Sportsman of the Century in his native Denmark.
• 2007 First Honorary Member ( Inductee ) in the newly created ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame

Other sailors' activities

Elvstrøm also tried to participate in the America's Cup, but revolutionized the technology of its 12 - meter sailing yacht such that its sponsor Baron Marcel Bich ( France I) wanted to bring from France, changes. Elvstrøm gave up his plan because he wanted no compromise.

Elvstrøm is known as a design engineer and designer of boats and sailing accessories and has his own company Elvstrøm Sails based in Aabenraa (German Apenrade ) built. The company is called since 2003 Elvstrøm - Sobstad and has as its logo a red three -pointed crown. He dominated the boat Finn class dinghy in the years 1950 and brought many technical innovations and new training methods (for example, targeted strength training) into dinghy sailing.

Elvstrøm constructed jointly with the Danish Yacht Designers January Kjaerulff fast, lightweight and sporty, sleek yacht type Aphrodite 101 (Client: Jorgen Juul Rasmussen ( DK ) ), which was very successful. While Kjaerulff designed the hull form, Elvstrøm constructed the deck layout, the mounting arrangement and the rig. Furthermore Elvstrøm invented the ELVSTROM - ratchet block and the self- bailers, both widely used today, and the racing life jacket, now an integral part of the equipment of every competition glider.

His seglerisches knowledge he passed on in books, in particular for sailing tactics and rules knowledge in a regatta.

He lives in Hellerup near Copenhagen in Denmark.