John Paul Kostecki (born July 7, 1964) is an American competitive sailor of Polish descent. He was born in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. He started his sailing career in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Events

World Championships

Kostecki won a number of world champion titles in different sailing classes.

Olympics

At the

1988 Summer Olympics 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 ...

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, South Korea, he finished in 2nd place in the

Soling The Soling is an Keelboat, open keelboat that holds the World Sailing "International class" status. The class was used from the Sailing at the 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 Olympics until the Sailing at the 2000 Summer Olympics, 2000 Olympics as "Sa ...

class along with his partners William Baylis and Robert Billingham.

Volvo Ocean Race

He also sailed the

Whitbread Round the World Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Ra ...

in 1997/1998. In the 2001–02 Volvo Ocean Race he led

Illbruck Challenge ''Illbruck Challenge'' is a Volvo Ocean 60 The Whitbread 60 (W60), later known as the Volvo Ocean 60 (VO60), was a class of ocean racing yacht built to a " box rule" specifying key design parameters of the 10 smaller yachts which took part th ...

that was based in

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. The city is part of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan ...

to an overwhelming victory in the arguably toughest sailing race around the world. Of notable interest was the fact that Illbruck set the world 24 hours speed record for monohulls. The record of 484 nautical miles was completed at 20:02 on April 30 during Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race and was confirmed by the

World Sailing Speed Record Council The World Sailing Speed Record Council (WSSRC) was founded in 1972, initially to ratify records at the inaugural Weymouth Speed Week held every year since in Portland Harbor.The WSSRC is the body authorized by the World Sailing (formerly Internat ...

. This sparked an unprecedented sailing boom in Germany that led to thousands of sailing fans and Illbruck supporters awaiting Kostecki and his crew finishing their last leg from

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

. He did the 2005–06 Volvo Ocean Race with Ericsson. He was also designated skipper for Ericsson’s in the next Race (2008/2009) but resigned from his position in August 2007 for family reasons

America's Cup

He sailed with America³ at the

1992 America's Cup The 28th America's Cup was contested between the winner of the 1992 Citizen Cup defender selection series, America³ ''America'' (pronounced "America Cubed") is the name of both a syndicate that vied for the America's Cup in 1992 and 1995 and ...

. After a short employment with the BMW Oracle America’s Cup Team in the early 2000s he left for the 2005 VOE. In 2008, the then three times

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 a ...

winner

Russell Coutts Sir Russell Coutts (born 1 March 1962) is a world champion New Zealand yachtsman. He won an Olympic gold medal and skippered three Americas Cup victories in 1995, 2000, and 2003. Early life Coutts was educated at Otago Boys' High School ...

, who had just recently been appointed CEO of

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who co-founded software company Oracle Corporation. He was Oracle's chief executive officer from 1977 to 2014 and is now its chief technology officer a ...

's America’s Cup Team BMW Oracle Racing, hired Kostecki for his afterguard. The next America’s cup match took place between the defender, the Swiss team

Alinghi Alinghi, or Alinghi Red Bull Racing because of the sports marketing branding by Red Bull, is the syndicate set up by Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the colors of the Société Nautique de Genève, to challenge for the America's Cup, as well ...

, and BMW Oracle, in

Valencia (Spain) Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in February 2010. With Kostecki as tactician, the American team won both races against the defender and thus brought back the oldest trophy in sports history to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

after 15 years.

Other

In 1997, he won the One Design 48 Championship, and the Malaysia Challenge Grand Prix. Kostecki became very popular in Europe as skipper and helmsman of the German yachts all called "Pinta" owned by the Illibruck family.

Awards

In 1988, he was then named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year In 2002, Kostecki was named United States Rolex Yachtsman of the Year for the second time In 2002 he was shortlisted for the

World Sailing World Sailing is the international sports governing body for sailing (sport), sailing; it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). History The creation of the International Yac ...

– World Sailor of the Year Awards. 2012 US Sailing Hall of Fame Inductee

References

External links