Gašper Vinčec (born 5 April 1981) is a Slovenian former sailor, who specialized in the Finn class. He represented his country

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

in two editions of the Summer Olympic Games (2004 and 2008) and came closest to the medal haul in the final race of his signature fleet, finishing in seventh place. Outside his Olympic career, Vinčec picked up a bronze at the 2007 ISAF Worlds in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, becoming the first Slovenian sailor to ascend the podium since the breakup of

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

. A member of the country's Finn yacht club (), Vinčec trained most of his competitive sporting career under the tutelage of his personal coach Roman Teply. Vinčec made his Olympic debut in Athens 2004, sailing in the Finn class. There, he accumulated a net grade of 151 points to obtain the lowly twentieth overall spot out of 25 entrants at the end of the eleven-race series. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Vinčec qualified for his second Slovenian team in the open Finn class. Building up his Olympic selection, he picked up a bronze at the 2007 ISAF Worlds in

to lock the country's top Finn berth for the Games. A potential medal favorite, Vinčec entered the final race with a myriad of top-ten marks over the past eight legs. A costly penalty on the run, however, effectively pushed Vinčec towards the back of the fleet, slipping him out of the podium to seventh overall with 72 net points. Vinčec sought to bid for his third consecutive trip to the Games in both

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

and

Rio 2016 The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, but he lost twice in a series of domestic selection regattas to multiple-time medalist

Vasilij Žbogar Vasilij Žbogar (born 4 October 1975), is a Slovenian sailor. He was born in Koper. Žbogar competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he won a bronze medal and in the 2008 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal, both of them in laser c ...

References

External links

* * *
Gasper Vincec
at FinnClass.org * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vinčec, Gašper 1981 births Living people Slovenian male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Slovenia Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Finn Sailors (sport) from Koper 21st-century Slovenian sportsmen