Meet the team: Fynn Sterritt
Fynn Sterritt
Third time's a charm...
Fynn Sterritt wrote in his high school yearbook he would go to the Olympics and he is finally achieving it.
The 34-year-old has been selected to represent Team GB in sailing at Paris 2024 next year, doing so alongside his 49er partner James Peters.
Sterritt, who hails from Kingussie in the Scottish Highlands, has faced a long wait to seal his place at the Games.
“It's pretty crazy,” he said. “I told a few very close people that I'm going to the Olympics prior to it being announced.
“And I was up at home in the highlands of Scotland, reminiscing with friends and one of them got a yearbook out.
“It asked the question ‘Where will you be in four years?’ and I said I will be at the Olympics, and that was 16 years ago.
“Things don't happen quite as fast as you hope or certainly haven't for me and I’ve been told that if we were to medal, I would be the oldest 49er crew to medal.
“Everyone gets to these things at different points. I would have loved to have gotten there a little bit earlier, but likewise, many people don’t make it.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling to pursue the dream and to pursue it all the way. I’m sure it is not quite as cool as it is going to feel next year.”
Sterritt first joined the British Sailing Team in 2012 but after a second missed selection for an Olympics in 2020, the Loch Morlich Sailing Club sailor took a break and completed a degree in aerospace engineering.
He and Peters came back together for one more shot at a Games and will now represent Great Britain at Paris on the 10th anniversary of their partnership.
He added: “I got a phone call from Mark Robinson, the performance director. We have had those phone calls twice in the past to say that we haven’t been selected so it is nice to get one the other way around this time.
“It is something that my partner James and I have been working on since 2014.
“That's a long time in itself, but it is something I've been dreaming about since I was 12 years old. It's pretty cool and you definitely have to stop and catch yourself, and appreciate the moment.”
Sterritt (right) and Peters in action. © Nick Dempsey
Getting the job done
Previously ranked as world No.1, Sterritt and Peters’ return to sailing has seen them claim European bronze en route to the Olympics.
The pair finished ninth at the Olympic test event in Marseille, where the Paris 2024 sailing will be held, but will hope their experience together helps them at the real thing next year.
“We were sort of engineered together by our coach,” Sterritt explained. “It’s an interesting relationship, it's a bit of everything.
“You are colleagues, you are business partners, you've got joint accounts together and then we do get on really well on the water and in social environments,
“It's really cool that I've been on this journey for so long with James and to have got there together is really, really awesome.
“Both of us took a break from sailing when we found out we didn't get selected for Tokyo, so it's nice to be able to come back together and complete that journey as a duo.
“Now we need to go and finish the story in the right way.”
About the author
Will Carson