Today at the Games: August 8

Ellie Aldridge wins the first ever women's kite Olympic gold medal. © World Sailing

Historic kite gold for Ellie Aldridge

A rollercoaster day of soaring highs – and crushing lows – in Marseille as the Paris 2024 sailing competition came to a close with Ellie Aldridge sealing gold in the women’s kite class.

Here’s what happened on day 12.

Kite women
For the past two years there have been two women battling it out for supremacy in the women’s kite competition – France’s Lauriane Nolot, and Britain’s Ellie Aldridge.

Nolot came into Paris 2024 as the favourite having won the 2023 and 2024 world championships, but Aldridge has timed her performance peak to perfection.

The pair went into the women’s kite final in first and second respectively, with Nolot needing only one race win to secure gold and Aldridge needing two to unseat her French rival.

What followed was a pure masterclass from Aldridge, dominating the racing right from the start gun.

A race win for Aldridge levelled the playing field – and then came the moment we’d all been waiting for as she sailed a perfect second race to cross the finish line in front, becoming the first women’s kite Olympic champion and claiming Team GB’s 50th medal of the Games.

“This event has been totally different to any event I’ve ever done,” Aldridge said. “It’s been tricky but amazing, and to perform like this on the last day is a dream.

“It’s not been an easy Olympics for the team but I’m so happy to get this gold medal for them and put a smile on the team’s face.”

This medal means Great Britain has won a gold medal in sailing at every Olympics since Lottery funding was introduced in 1997.

Ellie Aldridge, take a bow.

© World Sailing

Kite men
Connor Bainbridge went into the men’s kite semifinal with a lot on. 

Qualifying in eighth meant he had to win three races back-to-back to make it to the four-athlete final.

However the opening semifinal race win went to Bainbridge’s close friend and old training partner Valentin Bontus of Austria, ending the battle before it had really got going.

Having consistently made the podium over the past three years, Bainbridge bowed out of Paris 2024 gutted not to be going home with a medal.

“It's been tough,” he said. “I was just chatting to Micky [Beckett], obviously, with his disappointment yesterday, and he said you shouldn't hinge your entire career over one week every four years. 

“And I think that, to me, really sunk in. I've had top three results over the last six years and I've rarely stepped off a podium. 

“So I think at the end of the day it's one event in a four year cycle. Will I be back? Yeah, probably.”

Nacra 17
Tokyo silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet went into the Nacra 17 medal race six points off the silver medal position in third, and tied on points with fourth.

They knew what they had to do: keep the Kiwis in fourth behind them, and finish three places ahead of the Argentinians occupying the runner-up spot.

As the race began in painfully light winds Gimson and Burnet looked in a solid position towards the front of the fleet, but their world was about to come tumbling down.

The race committee had judged them to be over the line at the start of the race, but Gimson and Burnet hadn’t realised and continued up the first leg.

It was only when an umpire boat pulled them out of the race did they discover their fate – and that was their hope of a medal dashed.

It was an excruciating end to an amazing regatta for the pair, who are due to marry next month.

Despite the crushing disappointment, Gimson and Burnet both talked of their pride in the way they’d performed in Marseille.

“I’d say the OCS is probably the most brutal way to lose because it’s so out of our control,” Gimson said. 

“I’m so proud if this week, how we sailed. We knew it would be a hard venue and we chipped away in every race and got ourselves to where we wanted. 

“I felt so in control of ourselves going into that start, what the plan was, where the Kiwis were. We made one mistake and it's cost us another Olympic medal so you can imagine what we’re going through.”

Fighting back tears, Burnet added: “In that moment, it's devastating. It's a bad dream. But we’re proud of all we've done. 

“We’ve been on the podium at every single regatta this campaign. That’s sport, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. What a journey. We did our best.”

What’s next
After a day of packing up in Marseille, the sailing team will head to the Paris 2024 closing ceremony in the French capital alongside their Team GB comrades, before returning to British Sailing Team HQ in Portland on Monday.

Follow us
You can still head to the British Sailing Team’s Paris 2024 hub for all the info on our Team GB sailors, as well as about the Paris 2024 sailing competition.

Full results from the regatta are here.