World Youth Championships: Bronze for "Mimi" - Mirja Dohle crowns her youth career
Tatjana Pokorny
· 22.12.2025
In Vilamoura last week, the next generation of Olympic sailors showed off their skills at the Youth World Championships. The best German performer in the Portuguese World Championship area was Mirja Dohle, who sailed to a podium finish in the Ilca 6. The helmswoman, who competes for the Großenheidorn Sailing Club and the Hanover Yacht Club, won the bronze medal, crowning the end of her youth career just before Christmas.
World Youth Championships: On the podium in the last event
"I'm very happy with how the Youth Worlds went for me. It's my first international medal and it feels special to be on the podium for my country," said Mirja "Mimi" Dohle. The sailor from the German Sailing Team's national youth squad had this to say: "For me, it's a great way to round off my last event in the youth sector, and I'm already looking forward to Lanzarote, where the U21 World Championship is coming up in January."
In addition to the 18-year-old Ilca-6 sailor, other athletes from the German Sailing Team shone with top ten placings: ILCA-6 sailor Levian Büscher (Düsseldorfer Yacht-Club) only just missed out on the podium in fourth place. In the iQFOiL, surfer Emma Schleicher (SV Wacker Burghausen) came eighth, as did brothers Tizian and Julian Lembeck (Segelclub Inning am Ammersee) in the youth skiff 29er.
Matti Winkler (Chiemsee Yacht Club) finished 21st in the iQFOiL windsurfing youth world championships, while his club mates Marie and Antonia Schwarz came 14th in the 29er women's event. In the 420er, where the youngsters are training for the Olympic 470er, the mixed team of Clara Sigge and Paul Schmidt (Essener Turn- und Fechtverein) came 18th, while Janne Schirmer (Schweriner Segler-Verein) and Edda Sperling (Schweriner Yacht-Club von 1894) sailed to 16th place in the women's competition.
Positive conclusion after the World Youth Championships
Matti Cipra drew a positive conclusion in Vilamoura. The national centre coach for young athletes supervised the team on site and said: "Overall, we can be satisfied with the performance of the whole team. Mimi's medal is of course outstanding and a very strong personal performance. But Levian also sailed brilliantly. Although it is annoying to miss out on a medal by such a narrow margin, it is his best result to date in this international field."
Mirja Dohle and Levian Büscher were coached at the Youth Worlds by Ilca national squad coach Fabian Kirchhoff. The Youth World Championships is the only competition organised by World Sailing where all pre-Olympic junior classes come together and - as at the Olympic Games - only one team per nation is eligible to compete in each discipline.
A total of eleven champions were crowned at the Youth World Championships. Italy and Great Britain triumphed twice with two gold medals: Lorenzo Sirena and Alice Dessy defended their title in the Nacra 15, while Medea Falcioni remained unbeaten on her way to the women's iQFOiL title. With these performances, Italy's youngsters won the Nations Trophy for the third time in a row. Click here for the results of the Youth Worlds.
The winners of the World Youth Championship
Like Medea Falcioni, Switzerland's Gian Andrea Stragiotti and China's Suofeiya Li remained unbeaten in their Formula Kite victories, while David Coates (USA) and Irene de Tomas (ESP) were crowned ILCA 6 champions. Poland and Ukraine took gold in the Men's 29er class and the Men's 420 class thanks to Szymon Kolka and Bartosz Zmudzinski as well as Sviatoslav Madonich and Dmytro Karabadzhak. Who remembers: Sviatislav Madonich was one of the protégés of Ukrainian coach Pavlo Dontsov, who was crowned Seamaster 2022 at boot Düsseldorf in 2023. Peleg Rajuan from Israel came out on top in the men's iQFOiL class.
