Johannes Sebastian Polgar (born 25 August 1977) is a German sailor, who specialized in the multihull ( Tornado) and keelboat

Star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

) classes. Together with his partner Florian Spalteholz, he was named one of the country's top sailors in the mixed multihull catamaran for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

, finishing in eighth place. After the Games, Polgar decided to move into the Star class and eventually shared a gold-medal victory with his partner Markus Koy at the 2010 Europeans in Viareggio, Italy. A member of North German Regatta Club (german:

Norddeutscher Regatta Verein Norddeutscher Regatta Verein (NRV), approx. meaning "North German Regatta Club", is a yacht club in Germany. This club is based in Uhlenhorst, Hamburg, Germany; the clubhouse is located at Hamburg's Lake Außenalster. Founded in 1868,it is one of ...

), Polgar trained most of his competitive sailing career under the tutelage of his Norwegian-born personal coach Rigo de Nijs. Polgar competed for the German sailing squad, as a 30-year-old skipper in the Tornado class, at the

in Beijing. Leading up to their maiden Games, he and crew member Spalteholz topped the selection criteria in a duel against brothers Tino and Niko Mittelmeier for the country's Tornado berth, based on their cumulative scores attained at two international regattas stipulated by the

German Sailing Federation The German Sailing Federation (german: Deutscher Segler Verband) is the national governing body for the sport of sailing in Germany, recognised by the International Sailing Federation. History In 1888 the German Sailing Association was founded ...

(german: Deutscher Segler Verband). The German duo started off the race series in the middle of the fleet until the shifty wind conditions propelled them to the front on the final half with a single victory and a triad of top-five marks, making both Polgar and Spalteholz eligible for the medal race. An unforeseen capsize by the German duo on the initial run, however, saw their medal chances vanish, plummeting them further to eighth overall with 74 net points.

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* * * 1977 births Living people German male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Germany Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sportspeople from Arnsberg (region) People from Olpe, Germany {{Germany-yachtracing-bio-stub