If the Olympic medals won in Rio de Janeiro ten years ago were anything to go by, Team Germany would be set for one of the top places at the SailGP premiere in Rio de Janeiro. Erik Heil won the first of his two bronze medals with Thomas Plößel in Guanabara Bay a decade ago. Now, for the first time in ten years, he is back at the site of his triumph and challenged with the Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank on the F50 foils.
Rio-SailGP premiere: gold, silver, bronze galore
Erik Heil is one of a flood of Olympic medallists from Rio who are now active in the SailGP. Martine Grael is the best known at her home game. The trained skiff sailor, who grew up in Niterói not far from Guanabara Bay, won the first of her two 49erFX gold medals with Kahena Kunze in 2016. Now the two women are competing against each other in the SailGP: Martine is steering for Team Mubadala Brazil (11th in the standings after three events). Kahena is a strategist in the Danish team Rockwool Racing (8th place).
2016 Olympic Finn gold medallist Giles Scott will also be racing in Rio with the Canadian team NorthStar. The same goes for Great Britain's Matt Gotrel, who was a rower in the British eight at the 2016 Olympic Games before later switching to sailing. Hannah Mills is a double gold medallist like Martine Grael and also won silver at her home event in Weynouth in 2012. Dylan Fletcher's strategist in Team Emirates Team GBR was the most successful female sailor in Olympic history until she was dethroned in Marseille 2024 by the "Flying Dutchwoman" Marit Bouwmester with a total of two golds, one silver and one bronze.
But back to the SailGP: The 49er Olympic champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke would also have liked to start in Rio with their Black Foils. But their new boat is not yet ready after the crash in Auckland. Another five Rio athletes won silver at the Rio Olympic regatta ten years ago: Nathan Outteridge (now a driver for the Swedish team Artemis) and his foreskipper Iain Jensen (wing trimmer for Bonds Flying Roos) finished second in the 49er at the 2016 Olympics. Jason Waterhouse (flight controller of the Bonds Flying Roos) and Lisa Darmanin (SailGP reporter) won silver in the Nacra 17.
SailGP: Olympic medals boost careers
In addition, 470s foresailor Will Ryan is working as a grinder for Red Bull Italy. The New Zealand 49erFX silver medallist Jo Aleh, who is also named on the SailGP lists, has now switched to her home America's Cup team.
Three bronze medallists complete the prominent long list of Rio Olympic aces in the SailGP: In addition to Erik Heil, there is Artemis coach Sam Meech, who won silver in the Ilca 7 in 2016, and Denmark's Anne-Marie Rindom in Team Rockwool Racing, who took bronze in the Ilca 6 before becoming Olympic champion five years later at the Enoshima Games and adding silver in 2024.
One conclusion can certainly be drawn from this flood of medals in the SailGP: Olympic medals boost careers and pave the way for professional sailing. And it helps if there are SailGP racing teams in the medallists' own country. Erik Heil himself once contributed to the fact that the Germany SailGP Team by Deutsche Bank is now in its third season thanks to years of persistent campaigning.
Justified or offended? US team files suit against Rockwool Racing
A total of 13 teams are now active in the SailGP. The sixth season of the World League is underway. The first three of 13 events in 2026 have been contested. The league leaders are the 2025 season champions, Emirates Team GBR, ahead of the record winners Bonds Flying Roos with driver Tom Slingsby and the US team. Speaking of the US team: according to the American media, including the well-informed Scuttlebutt, the American racing team has filed a lawsuit against the Danish team Rockwool Racing, which has already been heard by the Delaware Chancery Court.
The lawsuit is about unfair competition and trademark infringements. The background to this is the 60 million US dollar takeover of the Rockwool Racing team by sports investor and American Magic co-founder Doug DeVos. Scuttlebutt, among others, reported that the US team's lawsuit also revealed that Doug DeVos had originally tried to acquire the US team. However, he then invested in the Danish racing team, in which Rockwool will remain a title partner until at least 2032.
Defence lawyers for the defendants argued that the league, not the US team, controlled the trademark rules and had approved all of the markings used by Rockwool Racing. No further decisions were initially made by the court. All indications were that the Rio regatta would not be directly disrupted by the lawsuit. However, it is to be expected that Taylor Canfield's US team and the team led by Rockwool driver Nicolai Sehested will not be best friends on the course this weekend.
Spanish SailGP team sold
The Spaniards will turn up in Rio with a new lease of life. They have been bought as a team by the Quantum Pacific Group. With this takeover, the league announced, the investment group is expanding its growing sports portfolio, which already includes Atlético Madrid, F.C. Famalicão and the Movistar Team. Rider Diego Botin, wing trimmer Flot Trittel, strategist Nicole Van der Velden and her team will benefit from this in sporting terms.
The deal makes 'Los Gallos' the twelfth of 13 teams in the Rolex SailGP, which is now privately owned. With its vibrant fan base and proven track record as a host country, Spain remains a key market, the league announced, but after four successful seasons in Cádiz, this year on 5 and 6 September 2026 it will be sailing for the first time where the America's Cup celebrated one of its best editions in 2007: in Valencia!
The New Zealand Black Foils in the SailGP currently have less reason to be happy: after the serious Auckland crash, a new foiler is being built, but it is not yet ready. There is still no fixed comeback date. Peter Burling, Blair Tuke and their team will have to keep waiting - and watch what the others do in Rio. Whoever wants to watch, can find the ZDF live stream on 11 and 12 April at prime time from 20 here. Kristin Recke comments on the races. The channel wedotv shows the original transmission at the same time here.
To relax before the weekend tension, the latest Bonds Flying Roos clip with Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman - it's all about bad omens on boats:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
