John Curtis-Robertson (born 11 February 1972) is a British Paralympic sailor. Curtis-Robertson has represented Great Britain at three Summer Paralympics and with his colleagues
Stephen Thomas and
Hannah Stodel has won multiple medals in the
Mixed Sonar class at the
Disabled Sailing World Championships, including skippering his team to back to back gold medals in 2005 and 2006.
Personal life
Robertson was born in
Sunderland, England in 1972.
After leaving school he joined the Royal Air Force, but in 1994 a motorbike accident left him paralysed from the waist down and he was invalided out of the force.
John married Louise Curtis-Robertson in 2022.
Sailing career
Robertson was first introduced to sailing by his father when he was 11, piloting
mirror's off the coast in Sunderland.
After his accident in 1994, he was introduced to Paralympic
trimarans by a spinal injuries charity during an outward bound course in the
Lake District.
In 1997 he began sailing
Sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...
's.
By 2003 Robertson was joined by fellow British sailor
Hannah Stodel and newcomer to the sport, ice sledge hockey Paralympian
Stephen Thomas, to make up a Mixed Sonar crew. In 2003 he travelled with his teammates to Athens to take part in the
IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championship, where they secured the bronze medal.
The following year the trio qualified for their first Summer Paralympics, the
2004 games at Athens, finishing sixth in the Sonar class.
Robertson, Thomas and Stodel would remain as a team for over 12 years, with major successes coming in the 2005 World Championships in Sønderborg and the 2006 World Championships in Perth where Robertson skippered them to gold in the Sonar class.
They represented Britain in their second Paralympics, in the
2008 Games in Beijing. They again finished sixth.
Two silver medals in the 2010 and 2011 IFDS World Championships were followed by their
third successive Paralympics, this time on home surf when the games came to London. The London Paralympics ended in disappointment for Robertson and his teammates after they were deducted four points after a team bosun cleaned the port side of their keel after being authorized to inspect the craft for damage. The deduction saw the British team drop to fifth and the bronze medal going to Norway, just three points ahead of them.
In the run up to the
2016 Summer Paralympics
The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...
in Rio, Robertson skippered his crew to a third World Championship, beating the Australian team by a single point.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, John
1972 births
Living people
Paralympic sailors for Great Britain
British male sailors (sport)
Sailors at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
Sailors at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
Sailors at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
Sportspeople from Sunderland
People educated at Monkwearmouth School