John Waldrip Kolius (born April 1, 1951) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

sailor. He won a silver medal in the

Soling The Soling is an open keelboat that holds the World Sailing "International class" status. The class was used from the 1972 Olympics (Kiel) until the 2000 Olympics (Sydney) as " Open Three Person Keelboat". Besides the Olympic career of the Soli ...

class with Walter Glasgow and Richard Hoepfner at the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

in Montreal. In

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

he competed at the

Louis Vuitton Cup The Louis Vuitton Cup was the name of the Challenger Selection Series sailing competition from 1983, named after its sponsor, Louis Vuitton. The winner of the competition became the challenger to compete with the defender of the America's Cu ...

. Kolius began sailing at the age of 5 when his father introduced the family to sailing as a way to spend time together. John's first boat was a Sunfish and he grew up sailing at the Houston Yacht Club through the Ragnot program. In 1968, John won his first major championship, the US Sailing Triplehanded Championship for the Sears Cup. He was 17 years old. Two years later at the age of 19, Kolius won the US Sailing Senior Championship for the Mallory Trophy. It was not too long after that he began sailing Solings and preparing for the Olympics. In 1975, John won the

North Americans and in 1976 an Olympic silver medal. Kolius was born in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

America's Cup

Kolius became an

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

competitor in

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, skippering ''Courageous'' against

Tom Blackaller Thomas David Blackaller, Jr. (January 6, 1940 – September 7, 1989) was a world-champion American yachtsman, America's Cup helmsman, sailmaker, and racecar competitor. He was a two-time world champion in the Star class keelboat, a world champio ...

in ''Defender'' and eventual cup defender

Dennis Conner Dennis Walter Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup. Sailing career Conner was born September ...

in ''Liberty''. Kolius was recruited for his second Cup effort in

, this time as skipper of ''

America II ''America II'' is a racing sailboat and one of the final America's Cup 12 Meters. There were a total of three ''America II''s commissioned for the New York Yacht Club's challenge in the 1987 America's Cup. These were US 42, 44 & 46 and all boats we ...

''. When the America's Cup shifted to IACC yachts for the 1992 Cup, Kolius sailed as part of the Italian team, ''

Il Moro di Venezia Il Moro Challenge was a 1992 Italian America's Cup team headed by industrialist Raul Gardini. The team won the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup but failed to win the 28th America's Cup. Early years International America’s Cup Class boats (IACC) were a ...

'', with

Raul Gardini Raul Gardini (June 7, 1933 – July 23, 1993) was an Italian agri-business and chemicals tycoon. In 1980 he took the helm of his father-in-law Serafino Ferruzzi's family business, starting an aggressive campaign that led to the acquisition of ...

and

Paul Cayard Paul Pierre Cayard (born May 19, 1959) is an American yachtsman and professional sailor. He has competed at multiple world championship level sailing events, including the America's Cup, the Whitbread Round the World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race ...

, in which he placed 3rd at the IACC Worlds in 1991. He coached the team to a second place in the 1992 America's Cup. America3 recruited Kolius as a coach for their Cup run in 1995. Then when the Cup traveled to New Zealand for the 2000 event, Kolius put together the Aloha Racing Team. Throughout his sailing career, John has won numerous championship events. He is a two-time winner of the J24 Worlds (1979 & 1981), the 50 ft World Championships in 1992, the Kenwood Cup in 1994, and the 1997 Admiral's Cup just to name a few. John was also part of the team that organized the Ultimate 30 Pro Racing Series in the late '80s and went on to win the Ultimate 30 Championship in 1989. Significant Sailing Accomplishments * 1968 Sears Cup Winner * 1971 Mallory Cup Winner * 1975 Soling North American Winner * 1976 Olympic Silver Medal * 1979 & 1981 J24 World Champion * 1981 Championship of Champions Winner * 1990 & 1992 50 ft World Cup Champion * 1995 Transpac first to finish * 1997 Admiral's Cup 1st Place Team * 1998 One-design 48 World Champion * 2005 J80 North American Champion * 2008 ACC Melges 24 Winner

Business accomplishments

Kolius learned his sailmaking skills working for Buddy Melges. In 1983, Kolius opened the Texas franchise of Ulmer Sails which then became Ulmer-Kolius. Several years later Kolius sold his franchise, finding himself too busy with America's Cup events to be able to participate in the business. Ulmer-Kolius then became UK. In the 1990s, Kolius opened Regatta Sports and Rigging, which later became KO Sailing. In 2011, Kolius sold KO Sailing to Mark McNamara.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolius, John 1951 births Living people 1983 America's Cup sailors 1987 America's Cup sailors 2000 America's Cup sailors American male sailors (sport) J/24 class world champions Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics North American Champions Soling Olympic silver medalists for the United States in sailing People from Houston Sailors at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Soling World champions in sailing for the United States