Name: Robert Dickson
Event: Sailing - 49er (helm)
Age: 26
Sailing since he was seven-years-old, Robert Dickson began competing nationally at 10 before pairing up with Séan Waddilove at 15.
The duo qualified the Irish boat for the games in the 49er Europeans in October 2023 and had to go through a national trial, eventually pipping Cork's Séafra Guilfoyle and Johnny Durcan at the final trial event in May.
The pair had two race wins in Tokyo and finished 13th overall, despite a controversial disqualification due to harness weight that somewhat overshadowed their Games performance. They missed the medal race by three places.
"I think we were always quite ambitious we wanted to just do whatever was in front of us as well as we could. Back then it felt like too much of a dream to achieve what we are doing now.
"As we got better and better we started to realise that we were really good and that we did have a chance to do what we are doing now. It was until I finished in 420's for me anyway that I started thinking we has a chance of going to the Olympics," Dickson told RTÉ recently.
