Eleanor Aldridge MBE (born 29 December 1996) is a British sailor from Dorset who competes in women's kite foiling. She won the 2023

Formula Kite Formula Kite is the kitesurfing class chosen by World Sailing for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The class features a foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil. The equipment is not one-design, but instead competitors use their choice of approved producti ...

European Championships and took the silver that year in the World Championships. At the

2024 Paris Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

, Aldridge won a gold medal in the women's

event.

Early life

Aldridge was born on 29 December 1996 in

Poole Poole () is a coastal town and seaport on the south coast of England in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area in Dorset, England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east ...

, Dorset. She was first introduced to sailing when she was seven years old and joined the

Parkstone Parkstone is an area of Poole, in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole district, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. It is divided into 'Lower' and 'Upper' Parkstone. Upper Parkstone – "Up-on-'ill" as it used to be known in ...

Yacht Club where she experimented with sailing dinghies.

Career

In 2021 she beat French windfoiler Lauriane Nolot into third place at the Formula Kite World Championships in Torregrande in Sardinia. It was won by American

Daniela Moroz Daniela Moroz ( ; born 2 February 2001) is an American sailor who became the World champion at Formula Kite six times between 2016 and 2022. Life Moroz was born in Berkeley in 2001. Her parents were Czech immigrants. They had both left their co ...

with Aldridge in second. In 2022 she took the silver medal in the KiteFoil World Series

Traunsee Traunsee ( , ) is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, Austria. Its surface is approximately 24.5 km2 and its maximum depth of 191 metres makes it the deepest and by volume largest lake located entirely within Austrian territory; only ...

in Austria. She was beaten by the Polish surfer

Julia Damasiewicz Julia Damasiewicz (born 22 October 2004) is a Polish Formula Kite, formula kitesurfer. She was the European champion in 2020. Life Damasiewicz was born in 2004. When she was sixteen she became the European Champion in 2020 in formula kite racing ...

. Aldridge led the UK contingent at the World Championships in August 2023 in The Hague. Lauriane Nolot won the event and Aldridge took the silver. She was followed in third and fourth place by fellow British competitors,

Lily Young Lily Young is a distinguished professor of environmental microbiology at Rutgers New Brunswick. She is also a member of the administrative council at Rutgers University. She is the provost of Rutgers New Brunswick. She is a member of the Biot ...

and Katie Dabson. In 2023 she was training with four other "GB Kite Girls" in Weymouth. Katie Dabson and the other "GB Kite Girls" were assisting her training for the Olympics. The "GB Kite Girls" were Aldridge, Maddy Anderson, Jemima Crathorne, Katie Dabson and Lily Young. She won the 2023 Formula Kite European Championships in Portsmouth beating the Dutch Annelous Lammerts and the French Poema Newland. This was her first significant win and she took first, despite a crash. Lauriane Nolot, the world champion was not in Portsmouth for the event. There was an Olympic rehearsal type event later in Paris, in 2024, when she came second to Nolot. In March 2024 the Formula Kite European championships took place in Spain. Aldridge finished in fifth place just ahead of Lily Young, however in May at the Formula Kite World Sailing Championships she came second to the Frenchwoman Lauriane Nolot. The new sport of kite foiling which had been selected in 2019. Aldridge was then announced as a member of Great Britain's Formula Kite team. In kitesurfing, there is a large focus on having a higher weight to provide an advantage, so Aldridge focused on gaining weight for the 2024 Olympics; she cut down on exercise in order to gain 17% extra weight. She has stated that this means that cannot do other things she enjoys like cycling and eating healthily. All competitors are making similar sacrifices and she questions if the sport can continue if it requires riders to be so unhealthy. She went on to win gold in the women's

Formula kite Formula Kite is the kitesurfing class chosen by World Sailing for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The class features a foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil. The equipment is not one-design, but instead competitors use their choice of approved producti ...

event. Lauriane Nolot had fallen in one of the final races but her earlier results gave her the silver medal. The Dutch surfer, Annelous Lammerts, took the bronze medal. She was a member of the team of women who competed for the Women's

America's Cup The America's Cup is a sailing competition and the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one from the yacht club that currently holds the trophy (known ...

. Other team members were Tash Bryant, Hattie Rogers, Anna Burnet and

Saskia Tidey Saskia Tidey (born 11 June 1993 in Dublin, Ireland) is a sailor who has represented both Ireland and Great Britain in international sailing regattas. Tidey represented Ireland at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 49er FX class. In January 201 ...

and they were captained by Hannah Mills.The team made it through the heats and their boat Athena Pathway was beaten in the finals in October by the Italians. In the New Years Honours, Aldridge became a

Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

together with other TeamGB team mates 800m runner Keely Hodgkinson and trampoline Olympic champion Bryony Page. Later that month it was announced that she and Ben Cornish were to join the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team training for a strategist role.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldridge, Ellie 1996 births Living people British kitesurfers English female sailors (sport) Sportspeople from Poole Sailors at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Formula Kite Medalists at the 2024 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Olympic gold medalists in sailing 21st-century English sportswomen Members of the Order of the British Empire