Ben Ainslie

James Boyd caught up with our Laser Gold medallist at Marstrand to talk about big boats, America's Cup and future plans

Athens

On a personal level Ainslie still has Olympic aspirations. Like fellow Gold medallist Iain Percy he sees his next step as moving up to the Star, but acknowledges that achieving this while concentrating on an America's Cup campaign is going to be far from easy. "It's going to be very hard, but it is just about possible. I don't want to not be able to put the time in and not get the results." Ultimately he hopes to helm a British America's Cup challenger and beyond this who knows?

I joke with Ainslie about competing in the Vendee Globe and he seems to be genuinely interested in the possibility of doing this some day, but probably not until he's into his 30s. "Sailing is such a great sport, because there are so many different aspects to it and I'd like to experience them all. It would be a shame to sail Lasers for 20 years. But one step at a time..."