Billy Besson (born 8 March 1981) is a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

competitive

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 ...

. Besson was born in

Papeete Papeete ( Tahitian: ''Papeete'', pronounced ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the Pacific Ocean. The commune of Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, in the administrative subdivisi ...

, French Polynesia where multihulls are central to the sailing culture. A child of

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Aust ...

, he lived there with his family and learned to sail there. World Champion on the Dart 18 and F18, Besson has also amassed four world championship titles in the

Nacra 17 The Nacra 17 is a performance catamaran used for sailing. It was designed in 2011, went into production in 2012 and has been the focus of multihull sailing at the Olympic Games since its conception. The Nacra has been converted to a sailing ...

, forming a dynamic duo with

Marie Riou Marie Riou (born 21 August 1981) is a French sailor who competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Sailing at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Elliott 6m, Elliott 6m class with Claire Leroy and Élodie Bertrand coming 6th overall. In the 20 ...

. The skipper's serious back injury deprived the pair of their chance to vie for the Olympic title in Rio 2016 but, with unfinished business, the pair went back campaigning for

Tokyo 2020 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 List of Olympic Games h ...

. In 2018, whilst Riou was taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race, Besson was discovering offshore sailing for himself competing with two of France's most prestigious maxi-trimaran campaigns. (Sodebo with Thomas Coville / Banque Populaire with Armel le Cleac'h) From 2018 to October 2021, Billy was part of

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 ...

, as the French skipper of Sail GP.

Participation in Olympics

He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

, in the mixed Nacra 17.The duo ended 6th.

References

External links

* * * * 1981 births Living people French male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors of France Sailors at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Nacra 17 Nacra 17 class world champions World champions in sailing for France {{France-sport-bio-stub