QUITE simply, Ben Ainslie is Hampshire's most successful sportsman. The 27-year-old collects world and Olympic titles like we mere mortals collect stamps.
While most boys were playing with Action Man, the twice gold medal winner - at the Sydney and Athens games - was messing about in boats.
It sometimes seems as if he was born with a set of sails attached to his back - and that's not that far from the truth.
sailing, after all, is in Ben's blood.
His father, Roddy, now 64, was a crewman on Second Life which took part in the inaugural Whitbread Round the World Ocean Race in the early 1970s - later to mutate into the Volvo Round the World Race.
Looking tanned and relaxed, Ben arrived back in his adopted home town of Lymington late on Wednesday night after a whirlwind round of interviews with the BBC, ITV and just about every international sailing magazine you could care to mention.
Ben is hot property. Articulate, confident, good looking - and with a reportedly stunning girlfriend to boot - you should hate him.
Yet, as witnessed by the warmth of the greeting he received at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, on Thursday morning, Ben is a likeable bloke.
TO READ THE WHOLE INTERVIEW WITH BEN AINSLIE GO TO OUR DEDICATED SAILING SITE 'SAIL SOLENT' AT: www.sailsolent.co.uk Sailor with the Midas touch
David Newble david.newble@soton-echo.co.uk
OLYMPIC CHAMPION: Ben Ainslie from Lymington. Echo picture by Stuart Martin. Order no: i3f0r4l4
QUITE simply, Ben Ainslie is Hampshire's most successful sportsman. The 27-year-old collects world and Olympic titles like we mere mortals collect stamps.
While most boys were playing with Action Man, the twice gold medal winner - at the Sydney and Athens games - was messing about in boats.
It sometimes seems as if he was born with a set of sails attached to his back - and that's not that far from the truth.
Sailing, after all, is in Ben's blood.
His father, Roddy, now 64, was a crewman on Second Life which took part in the inaugural Whitbread Round the World Ocean Race in the early 1970s - later to mutate into the Volvo Round the World Race.
Looking tanned and relaxed, Ben arrived back in his adopted home town of Lymington late on Wednesday night after a whirlwind round of interviews with the BBC, ITV and just about every international sailing magazine you could care to mention.
Ben is hot property. Articulate, confident, good looking - and with a reportedly stunning girlfriend to boot - you should hate him.
Yet, as witnessed by the warmth of the greeting he received at the Royal Lymington Yacht Club, on Thursday morning, Ben is a likeable bloke.
TO READ THE WHOLE INTERVIEW WITH BEN AINSLIE GO TO OUR DEDICATED SAILING SITE 'SAIL SOLENT' AT: www.sailsolent.co.uk
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