Sam Meech (born 4 April 1991) is a New Zealand sailor who won a bronze medal at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Early life

Meech was born in

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, England, in 1991. The sailor

Molly Meech Molly Meech (born 31 March 1993) is a New Zealand sailor. Meech won the 2013 49er FX World Championship and a silver medal at the 2016 Olympics alongside Alex Maloney. During the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup The 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup ...

is his younger sister; almost exactly two years his junior. When he was three and a half years old, their parents gave up their house and the family lived on a boat for the next decade; the siblings attribute their affinity to water to this period of their lives. He received his secondary education at

Tauranga Boys' College Tauranga Boys' College is a state secondary school for boys, located on the edge of the downtown area of Tauranga, New Zealand. The school was founded in 1946 as Tauranga College, before overcrowding saw the school become single-sex in 1958. The s ...

, where fellow Olympic sailors

Jason Saunders Jason Saunders (born 22 November 1990) is a New Zealand sailor. Saunders was born in 1990 in Tauranga and received his education at Tauranga Boys' College that he attended with fellow Olympic sailors Sam Meech (born 1991) and Peter Burling (sail ...

(born 1990) and Peter Burling (born 1991) were his contemporaries.

Sailing career

Meech finished 34th in the Laser class at the 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and won a Halberg emerging talent award in 2011. In 2013 he won the men's Laser race at the

Sail for Gold Sail for Gold is an annual sailing regatta in Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth, the United Kingdom. The regatta was first held in 2006 and hosts the Olympic sailing classes, Olympic and Paralympic classes. It is part of the 2014 EUROSAF Champions Sai ...

competition and in 2014 he won the men's Laser competition at the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup. He was part of the New Zealand team that won the 2013 Youth America's Cup. Close friends Meech and

Andy Maloney Andrew Maloney (born 2 June 1990) is a New Zealand professional sailor born on 2 June 1990. Sailing career From the Murrays Bay Sailing Club, he finished third in both the 2005 and 2006 World Championships in the Splash class. He finished 13 ...

had an intense battle to win New Zealand's selection for the one quota spot for the

. Meech won a bronze medal in the

2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup The 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup was a series of sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice ...

sailing regatta in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

(USA) in January, and a silver medal at a later regatta in

Hyères Hyères (), Provençal Occitan: ''Ieras'' in classical norm, or ''Iero'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The old town lies from the sea clustered around t ...

(France) in April; these results won him the selection over Maloney. Meech and Josh Junior made up the last two Olympic nominees of the New Zealand sailing team in May 2016. Meech won a bronze medal in the Laser class; the first time that a New Zealand competitor has won an Olympic medal in this class. His sister, Molly Meech, also competed for New Zealand at the 2016 Olympics in the 49erFX class alongside Alex Maloney, the sister of Andy Maloney.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meech, Sam 1991 births Living people People educated at Tauranga Boys' College Olympic sailors of New Zealand New Zealand sportsmen New Zealand male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Laser Sportspeople from Tauranga Sportspeople from Portsmouth Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for New Zealand Olympic medalists in sailing Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Laser