Ian Warwick Brown (born April 4, 1954) was an Australian sailor and coach who won the bronze medal for competitive sailing in the 1976

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

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 ...

. He was the youngest Australian to win an Olympic medal for sailing until 2008 when Elise Rechichi won the Gold medal.

Competitive career

Early Championships And Winning Skiff Moth Designs

Ian's excellence began in 1968 when he won the Australian Championship, the Flying Ant class, at Perth. He was part of the Cherub class in 1969 as the 5th interdominion and won the world junior championship in Moth class in 1970. Later, at 18 years old, he won the World senior Moth Class Championship in 1972/3. Ian designed and built his own "

Skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats, usually propelled by sails or oars. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for work, leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-pers ...

Moth" designs. His win was the first-ever "Skiff Moth" to win a World Championship in the southern hemisphere, contested at

Napier, New Zealand Napier ( ; ) is a city on the eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Hawke's Bay region. It is a beachside city with a seaport, known for its sunny climate, esplanade lined with Norfolk pines, and extensive Art D ...

. He also secured second place in the 1974 World Championship contest held in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Olympic Games

Ian Brown won the prestigious bronze medal in the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

in the 470 class, held in Montreal. The sailing competition took place at Kingston on Lake Ontario. Ian Ruff was his forward hand and equipment owner. He was involved in several other Olympics as a competitor or coach while representing Australia. Ian was selected to represent Australia as a competitor in the

1980 Summer Olympic Games The 1980 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad () and officially branded as Moscow 1980 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 19 July to 3 August 1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, in present-day Russ ...

for the Flying Dutchman Class. He represented Australia as a substitute competitor at the

1984 Summer Olympic Games The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

. In 1988, he became an Olympic sailing coach at the

1988 Summer Olympic Games The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

for the Star and Flying Dutchman disciplines. In 1992, Brown was a substitute competitor and coach at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games. Ian also worked with Great Britain (Glenn Charles), New Zealand (Rod Davis), Bermuda (Peter Bromby), Bahamas (Mark Holowesko), and Australian (Colin Beashel), Star Class Olympic representatives on the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

site just prior to Olympic racing (accreditation was with the Bermudan Olympic Sailing during the 1996 racing.) In 2000, Brown was Head Coach and athlete development program architect, also searching out all coaches and a significant Olympic partnership with Danish Olympic sailing. His Program set up the first ever National Olympic Sailing Training Centre at Balmoral's HMAS Penguin in Sydney which included the first ever full time coaching programs for numerous Olympic sailing disciplines. At this time the program achieved the best ever results at an Olympic Sailing Games with two Gold Medals (Coach Victor Kovalenko), One Silver (Coach Michael Fletcher) and one Bronze (Coach Erik Stibbe). His program had World Championship wins in Olympic disciplines: Mistral One Design Sailboard – Lars Kleppich, Tornado Clases – Bundock and Forbes, Men's Olympic 470 – Tom King & Mark Turnbull, Star Class – Colin Beashel & David Giles, 49er Class – Chris Nicholson & Daniel Phillips. Also Second Place in lead up Worlds in Women's Olympic 470 – Jenny Armstrong & Belinda Stowell, Laser Class – Michael Blackburn, Europe Class – Melanie Denison. (Sourced Wikipedia Olympic Sailing Classes, Event Results) Late in 2000 Brown was Awarded an International Olympic Committee Certificate of Merit for his efforts. IOC Certificate of Merit

More Successful Achievements

During the 1980s, Ian Brown spent a sailing season racing the 16 ft Skiff Buckle Toyota. He achieved a podium placement in the NSW championships at Yarra Bay. In 1993, he and his crew, John Dorling and Barry Watson managed to achieve the 2nd spot in the 1993 Etchells Class World Championship, Brisbane, Australia. His most recent National Title wins are in the Farr 40 as tactician 2005, stepping in to skipper four heats with Martin Burke for Ian McCrossin and his team. They won the Dragon Class NSW championship on Sydney Harbour and two National titles in the SB20 class. Later, Ian bought and crewed the SB20, giving the skipper role to

Nathan Outteridge Nathan James Outteridge (born 28 January 1986) is an Australian sailor, a resident of Lake Macquarie. Career highlights Olympics :2008 – Beijing Olympics 5th, 49er (with Ben Austin) :2012 – London Olympics 1st, 49er (with Iain Je ...

. They won the 2011 Nationals. Interestingly Ian and Nathan put in a rushed SB20 charter boat effort with Tom Slingsby, who boasted his first attempt at being a forward hand during the 2011 SB20 World Championships at Torquay UK. In 2013, Ian went back to being the skipper in an attempt to with the 2013 Nationals. "The pre-regatta favourite, Brown and his crew of twin brothers Patrick Conway (bow & tactics) and Alex (mainsheet & tactics) and Scott Cotton (fourth hand) sailed a classy series with few errors. Their final scorecard of 19 points, a whopping 32.5 points from the nearest threat, proved an unclimbable mountain." In recent time Brown privately mentors some very successful Youths toward and into the senior Olympic programs.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Ian 1954 births Australian male sailors (sport) Living people Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in sailing Olympic sailors for Australia Sailors at the 1976 Summer Olympics – 470 20th-century Australian sportsmen Sportsmen from South Australia