Skandia Team GBR site Sail for Gold Regatta

Skandia Team GBR is the British sailing team preparing for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing 2008 and London 2012. Great Britain is the world's top Olympic sailing nation, having topped the medal table at both the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Sailing is recognised today as one of the UK’s most successful sports in terms of medal results and receives significant support from UK Sport through lottery funding. Skandia Team GBR 2008 consists of three squads – the “Performance Squad” currently made up of 44 sailors, and the “Development” and “Transitional” squads, which are jointly made up of 45 sailors. The Olympic Games comprise 11 sailing classes – Finn; Laser Radial: Laser; 470 (men and women); 49er; Star; Yngling; Tornado; NeilPryde RS:X (men’s and women’s windsurfers); and two* Paralympic classes, the Sonar and 2.4mR. Between September 2007 and April 2008 a squad of 18 Olympic and 4 Paralympic sailors will be selected to compete in the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008 (18-24 August 2008). Those selected will become members of the British Olympic Association Team GB (the entire British Olympic team of all athletes from all sports) for the Olympic Games. All other Skandia Team GBR 2008 members not selected to attend the 2008 Games will continue to train and develop ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games 4 year programme. Those not selected can continue to be a part our exploitation programme during the Olympics and can still represent the team in full Team branding. The RYA also runs ‘Pathway’ activities such as the Youth squad and other nationwide and regional Junior squads which aim to continuously feed into the Olympic classes in order to continue or improve on the current level of success. RYA.