Sébastien Godefroid
Sébastien ( Sebbe ) Godefroid ( born March 19, 1971 in Antwerp) is a Belgian sailor, world champion and Olympic silver medalist. At the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, he was in charge of the Belgian Olympic team flag into the stadium. He lives in the seaside town of Bredene in West Flanders and is a member of Ostend Sailing & Racing Club ( OSRC ) in Ostend.
Life
Godefroid studied at the Faculty of Sports and Physical Therapy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( Free University of Brussels), where he was involved in the study project topsport. He graduated with a degree in Sports Science from ( Licentiaat in de Lichamelijke Opvoeding ).
His sailors' training received Sébastien Godefroid in Antwerp's Royal Yacht Club Liberty ( Liberty Koninklijke Yacht Club, KLYC ). After winning the sailing world championship in 2001, two Vice World Championships and an Olympic silver medal, he finished his Olympic career after the 2008 Games. In February 2009, the Flemish Yacht Association ( Vlaamse Yachting Federatie, VYF ) appointed him to head coach. Because of his training, his knowledge and sporting experience considered him the ideal candidate as VYF on this newly created position. Godefroid should especially encourage young sailors and coach. It also seeks to advise the Association in technical terms and prepare the Belgian sailors athletic team and tactically at the 2012 Olympics in London. Under the name of Quest for Gold Godefroid had already prepared the objective of the 2012 Olympics in private initiative.
Sporting successes
In the Finn - Dinghy
By 2004, Godefroid went to the one-man dinghy Finn dinghy to the start. The first years of his international regattas were determined by a duel with the Polish sailors Mateusz Kusznierewicz.
In the Sail 1996 European Championships he won the bronze medal behind Kusznierewicz. The sailing area of Savannah, both pushed at the 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta one place forwards, so Godefroid came to the finish behind the gold medalist and Poland. With this Olympic silver medal he reached his greatest sporting success. The European Championships in 1998 won Godefroid and referred Kusznierewicz to fifth place. In the sailing world championships 2000 in Weymouth, he lost against the victorious Poland and came as a runner-up finish. 2001 in Marblehead, he could turn the result in turn and won Kusznierewicz before the World Cup. The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney ended Godefroid like the 2004 Summer Games in Athens in seventh place.
Switch to two-handed catamaran
After the 2004 Olympics, Sébastien Godefroid moved the boat class, to form together with his girlfriend Carolijn Brouwer a team in an open Tornado ( two-handed catamaran), they. Than control women, as he Vorschoter The couple made it his goal to win in this hitherto fastest Olympic sailing class at the next Summer Games medal. The Dutch-born Brouwer and multiple world champion in the single-handed dinghy Laser took the medal project to the Belgian nationality in order to start in Beijing in 2008 for the Belgian team can.
In the Volvo Champions Race of the Travemünde Week Brouwer / Godefroid 2005 occupied the third place. 2007 in Cascais won the couple who had since separated on a private level, in the World Championship behind the Spanish crew Fernando Echavarri / Antón Paz Blanco. The dream of the Olympic medal failed because occupied at the Summer Games in Beijing in 2008 Brouwer / Godefroid in the International Sailing Center in Qingdao, only the 12th Place.
Reason for the failure: failed relationship to Brouwer
Notable was the last regattas that Carolijn Brouwer was now close friends with the direct competitor Darren Bundock of Australia. The six-time world champion Bundock sat together with Glenn Ashby on the runners of the catamaran and won in Qingdao his second Olympic silver medal. In the qualification had Brouwer / Godefroid ( second place) still left the Australian Department Bundock / Ashby (fourth place) behind. That with the 12th place in his view, poor performance in the final of the Beijing Games wrote Sébastien Godefroid also because of his failed relationship with Carolijn Brouwer to:
" Another oldie took the disappointing performance in Beijing a bit philosophical. Sailor Sébastien Godefroid, in Atlanta still winning the silver medal and flag carrier in China, blamed his failed relationship with Carolijn Brouwer for the slightly marbled cut. Humanly, I have learned a lot. The fact that I no longer live with her and am still approached with their competition has not promoted the performance. "
About the competition and relationship problems of couples reported, among other sailors Stern magazine in 2008 under the headline relationship confusion in the tornado.
Sporting successes, overview
EM = Sailing Championships (only three places ), WM = World Sailing Championships (only three places ), OLY = Olympic Summer Games (all rankings )