In Part 2 of this exclusive story we chart Dylan Fletcher's path from Olympic gold to America’s Cup helmsman and his return to SailGP, revealing the highs, setbacks, and lessons that shaped his rise to the top of professional sailing.
While some Olympic gold medallists return home to a transformed life, Dylan Fletcher says that not much changed after he and Stu Bithell became Olympic 49er champions at Tokyo 2020.
“Obviously some things change, but life doesn't change as much as people may expect. When we lost the SailGP gig (see Part 1 of this story) both of us were really devastated by that. But we said to ourselves: ‘we just need to go and win a gold medal now and then we'll see what happens’. So we did. We got the gold medals. But, while there's no doubt that it made a massive difference, it still doesn't mean you're entitled to anything. The phone doesn’t suddenly start ringing. The hard work doesn't stop. You still have to do the hard yards.”
Fletcher turned his attention to the America’s Cup and set his sights on securing a spot with Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia syndicate for the 37th edition which was scheduled to be held in Barcelona, Spain in 2024. Having identified that “a ridiculous number” of the top name sailors in the America’s Cup had won the International Moth World Championship, he targeted the class’s 2022 Worlds in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he closed out the series at the top of the table by a 10 point margin.
At the same time, in an effort to broaden his experience of the commercial side of professional sailing, Fletcher took a job with SailGP looking after VIP guests attending the events.
I check-in with Tudor Team Alinghi’s director for technical and sailing, New Zealand America’s Cup veteran Dave Endean – the man in charge of making sure that in AC38 the Swiss syndicate improves on its somewhat lacklustre performance in the last Cup in Barcelona.
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