João Filipe Gaspar Rodrigues (born 2 November 1971) is a Portuguese

windsurf Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing g ...

er. He competed in every Summer Olympic Games from 1992 to 2016 with the best result of sixth place in 2004. Rodrigues started sailing aged nine and racing competitively at the age of eleven; in 1987 he was included to the national team. In 1995, he won his first major title at the

Mistral Mistral may refer to: * Mistral (wind) in southern France and Sardinia Automobiles * Maserati Mistral, a Maserati grand tourer produced from 1963 until 1970 * Nissan Mistral, or Terrano II, a Nissan 4×4 produced from 1993 until 2006 * Microp ...

World Championships, in Port Elizabeth,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The same year he also graduated from a five-year course in

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

and was awarded the Nobre Guedes Olympic Medal by the Portuguese Olympic Committee. 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 Selvagem Grande Island is part of the Savage Islands archipelago, which themselves are part of the Portuguese Autonomous Region of Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island () belongs to the northeast group of the Savage Islands, which com ...

. 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.

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 A standard-bearer, also known as a flag-bearer is a person (soldier or civilian) who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a f ...

in the

2016 Summer Olympics Parade of Nations During the Parade of Nations within the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, athletes and officials from each participating team marched in the Maracanã Stadium preceded by their flag and placard bearer. Each flag bearer had be ...

References

External links

* * * *
2009 IWA World Championships Report

2009 IWA World Championships Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues, Joao 1971 births Living people People from Santa Cruz, Madeira Madeiran sportspeople Portuguese windsurfers Olympic sailors of Portugal Portuguese male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Lechner A-390 Sailors at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Mistral One Design Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Mistral One Design Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Mistral One Design Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – RS:X Sailors at the 2012 Summer Olympics – RS:X Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – RS:X