Gold is the only thing on Giles Scott’s mind with the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, as he looks to emulate his podium-topping performance last time out at Rio 2016.
Hailing from Huntington, Cambridgeshire, Scott first began sailing when he was just six years old after his parents pushed him out on Grafham Water reservoir in an optimist dinghy.
Inspired as a child by Sir Ranulph Fiennes and his explorations Scott set about making adventures of his own, winning his first National Championship in sailing at the age of 14.
Sir Ben Ainslie was another childhood hero of Scott’s, and little did he know - when first meeting the now four-time Olympic champion as an eager nine-year-old - that years later they would be rivals, teammates, and friends.
Scott continued to enjoy success as a young sailor, winning the 2005 ISAF Youth World Championship in the Laser before going on to study geography at the University of Southampton, turning down a place in the RYA Olympic development squad.
“To be honest, I did it [went to university] because I’d heard from my brother that it was good fun, and my parents encouraged me to go,” Scott admitted.
“I always knew that I was going to keep my sailing ticking along and then as soon as I graduated, I was going to do the sailing full time.
“I wanted to meet and have good friends outside of sailing, and lead as much of a normal uni life as I could.
“I raced my Laser in the holidays and at the weekends, and then went down to national training camps when it fitted. It felt, in honesty, like I still needed something as backup and I suppose for me at that age, a degree provided that.”
But Scott luckily did not need a plan B, making the leap to the Finn heavyweight class and winning the Junior World Championship the same year he finished university, in 2008.
After earning a permanent place on the British Sailing squad a year later, Scott moved to Weymouth to get himself geared up for the London Olympics, going head-to-head with Ainslie for selection.
Scott said: “Those first few years I was kidding myself that I was campaigning for the Olympics. I wasn’t - I didn’t really have any idea how to until really late in that cycle.
“I didn’t fully understand the importance of the really important events. I knew that those were the events that you had to win, but for some reason I didn’t really connect winning a Sail for Gold regatta with the hugeness of the Olympic Games a year later.
“There was just some kind of disconnect there - but clearly Ben was all over it. He knew exactly what he had to do.
“I didn’t have that drive, and that was the biggest fundamental change that I made when I decided I wanted to go to Rio 2016.”
Although Scott lost out to the most decorated Olympic sailor for London selection, Ainslie’s fourth gold at the 2012 Games only inspired him further to win his own in Rio.
Handing over the baton was a seamless transition for British Sailing, with Scott having won four gold medals at the Finn World Championships and two European Championships before heading to Rio to earn his first Olympic title.
Awarded with an MBE in the 2017 New Year Honours list for services to sailing, Scott quickly turned his attention to that year’s America’s Cup.
The 33-year-old said: “You can clearly focus on your Games and get a proper Olympic campaign done and then still roll into the Cup, which was always what I’d wanted to do.
“I definitely wanted to try and engineer something that would help me go to Olympic sailing and then compete in the Cup.”
Scott - regarded as one of the world’s best tacticians - also raced at the 36th America’s Cup this year, alongside skipper Ainslie as part of Ineos Team UK, taking a six-month sabbatical from his Finn campaign.
Returning to Finn racing Scott won silver for the second year in a row behind Hungary’s Zsombor Berecz at the European Championships, and later took ninth at the Finn Gold Cup in May.
Now with just over a month to go until he will be defending his gold medal in Japan, Scott is sure to be in with another fighting chance to be Olympic champion.
Sportsbeat 2021