Stuart Bithell (born 28 August 1986 in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

) is a British

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

and Olympic champion. He competed with

Luke Patience Luke Patience (born 4 August 1986) is a British Olympic sailor. He competed with Stuart Bithell at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the team won a silver medal. Personal life Patience was born on 4 August 1986, in Aberdeen, Scotland. Sailing P ...

in the

470 class The 470 (Four-Seventy) is a double-handed monohull planing dinghy with a centreboard, Bermuda rig, and centre sheeting. Equipped with a spinnaker, trapeze and a large sail-area-to-weight ratio, it is designed to plane easily, and good teamwork i ...

at the 2012 Summer Olympics where he won a silver medal and in the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

where he won a gold medal in the Men's 49er class with Dylan Fletcher. In 2013, it was announced that Bithell and Patience would part ways, their aim for 470 gold no longer viable. While Patience continued in the 470, Bithell moved on to partner with John Pink in the 49er class. They failed to qualify for Rio 2016, losing out to Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign. After Rio, Pink and Sign both left the class. This resulted in Bithell and Fletcher teaming up. The decision was made in Portland, while the two competed against each other in the Moth class. They worked tirelessly together to reach Tokyo 2020. Alongside Fletcher, Bithell competed in 2019's inaugural season of the

SailGP SailGP is an international sailing competition using high performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix around the world. Its reigning champions are Tom Slingsby's Australia SailGP Team, who wo ...

, onboard Great Britain SailGP Team. He was flight controller on board. The team finished 4th overall. Bithell became Olympic champion representing Great Britain at the

in the Men's 49er class with Dylan Fletcher. Bithell was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2022 New Year Honours The 2022 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrations ...

for services to sailing.

References

External links

* * * * 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Rochdale British male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Great Britain Sailors at the 2012 Summer Olympics – 470 Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Olympic medalists in sailing Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – 49er Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Sailors at the 2020 Summer Olympics – 49er Members of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-yachtracing-bio-stub