Paul Elvstrøm, Danish yachtsman, Died at 88

  Sports

Paul Bert Elvstrøm was born on February 25, 1928, and died on December 7, 2016.

He was a Danish yachtsman.

Paul won four Olympic gold medals and eleven world titles in eight different types of boat, including Snipe, Soling, Star, Flying Dutchman and Finn.

He competed in eight Olympic Games from 1948 to 1988, being one of only six persons ever (the others are sailor Ben Ainslie, swimmer Michael Phelps, wrestler Kaori Icho, and athletes Carl Lewis in the long jump and Al Oerter in the discus) to win four consecutive individual gold medals (1948–60), first time in a Firefly, subsequently in Finns.

During his last two Olympic games he sailed the very high performance Tornado Catamaran class, which, in those days, was normally sailed by two young men, with his daughter Trine Elvstrøm as forward hand.

During 1996, he was chosen as “Danish Sportsman of the Century.

In 2007, he was among the first six inductees into the ISAF Sailing Hall of Fame.

Paul Elvstrøm passed away at 88 years old.