João Rodrigues (sailor)

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Gaspar and the second or paternal family name is Rodrigues.

João Filipe Gaspar Rodrigues (born 2 November 1971) is a Portuguese windsurfer. He competed in every Summer Olympic Games from 1992 to 2016 with the best result of sixth place in 2004.^[1]

João Rodrigues

Rodrigues at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
Born	(1971-11-02) 2 November 1971 (age 53) Santa Cruz, Madeira, Portugal[1]
Height	179 cm (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Weight	73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
Sport	Windsurfing
Club	Centro de Treino de Mar[3]
Medal record Representing  Portugal World Championships 1995 Port Elizabeth Mistral 2008 Auckland Neil Pryde RS:X 1998 Brest Mistral European Championships 1996 Nice Mistral 1997 Murcia Mistral 2008 Brest Neil Pryde RS:X 2003 Mondello Mistral

Rodrigues started sailing aged nine and racing competitively at the age of eleven; in 1987 he was included to the national team.^[3] In 1995, he won his first major title at the Mistral World Championships, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The same year he also graduated from a five-year course in engineering and was awarded the Nobre Guedes Olympic Medal by the Portuguese Olympic Committee.^[3] In the following two years, Rodrigues won the European Championships in the Mistral class. In May 2008, he added a third European title to his record, this time in the Neil Pryde RS:X class.

Rodrigues won a silver medal in the masters fleet at the 2009 IWA Junior, Youth and Masters World championships which took place at Weymouth and Portland sailing academy which is the venue for the windsurfing and sailing at the 2012 Olympic games.

In 2011 Rodrigues completed the longest non-stop ocean crossing on a windsurfing board when he sailed 160 nautical miles from Madeira to Selvagem Grande. He did it to celebrate his 40th birthday and attract attention to the Parque Natural de Madeira, Portugal's oldest national park. His brother Luís competed for Portugal in sailing at the 2012 World Championships.^[3]

Olympics

Despite being the most physical of sailing discipline his biggest achievement is the length of his professional windsurfing career competing in seven consecutive Worlds over a 24-year span. He was Team Portugal national flag bearer in the 2016 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations.^[4]

Year	Venue	Equipment	Event	Pos.	Notes
1992	Barcelona	Male Windsurfer	Lechner	23
1996	Savannah	Male Windsurfer	Mistral	7
2000	Sydney	Male Windsurfer	Mistral	18
2004	Athens	Male Windsurfer	Mistral	6
2008	Qingdoa	Male Windsurfer	RS:X	11
2012	Portland	Male Windsurfer	RS:X	14
2016	Rio	Male Windsurfer	RS:X	11

References

1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "João Rodrigues". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 3 December 2016.
2. "Joao Rodrigues". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
3. João Rodrigues^{[permanent dead link]}. nbcolympics.com
4. "The Flagbearers for the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony". 16 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.

External links

• João Rodrigues at World Sailing
• João Rodrigues at Olympics.com
• João Rodrigues at Olympedia
• ISAF Olympic Games Profile at the Wayback Machine (archived 20 February 2006)
• 2009 IWA World Championships Report
• 2009 IWA World Championships Official Website

Olympic Games
Preceded by Telma Monteiro	Flagbearer for  Portugal Rio de Janeiro 2016	Succeeded by Incumbent