Michael Blackburn (born 27 May 1970 in Sydney) is an Australian Olympic medallist, sailor and coach. He is well known for his crossing of

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The ...

in a

Laser dinghy The Laser is a class of single-handed, one-design sailing dinghies using a common hull design with three interchangeable rigs of different sail areas, appropriate to a given combination of wind strength and crew weight. Ian Bruce and Bruce ...

. He did so on 9 March 2005 in a record time (for sailing) of 13 hours 1 minute. In March 2005, he was ranked 3rd in the world in the Laser, behind

Robert Scheidt Robert Scheidt (born 15 April 1973) is a Brazilian sailor who has won two gold medals, two silver medals and a bronze from five Olympic Games and a Star Sailors League Final. He is one of the most successful sailors at Olympic Games and one of t ...

of Brazil and

Paul Goodison Paul Martin Goodison MBE (born 29 November 1977) is an English Olympic gold medal-winning sailor. Background He studied at Southampton Solent University completing an Undergraduate degree in Maritime Studies following his Olympic success he w ...

of Great Britain, and ahead of

Mark Mendelblatt Mark Mendelblatt (born February 19, 1973) is an American yachtsman. Married to windsurfer Carolina Mendelblatt (née Borges), he primarily sails the Laser Radial, a one-design class of small ( long, and ) single-handed sailing dinghy. Beginnin ...

of the United States. Blackburn also won the 2006 Laser World Championships in Jeju, Korea. He placed 9th at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens, Greece Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. He won a bronze medal in the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

in Sydney, Australia. Blackburn has coached three Gold medalists in three Olympics: He was coach of Australian Olympic Gold medalist

Tom Slingsby Tom Slingsby (born 5 September 1984) is an Australian competitive sailor. Slingsby's first successes came sailing Laser dinghy, Laser dinghies, where he won three consecutive world championships and the 2012 Olympic gold medal. Slingsby was t ...

in the Laser class at the

2012 Summer Olympics 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 ...

in London. He followed this by coaching Tom Burton to gold in the Laser class at the

2016 Summer Olympics 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 ...

. In 2021, he coached Matt Wearn to Gold in the Laser class at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

. In 2016 and 2019, he was named Coach of the Year at the Australian Institute of Sport Performance Awards. Outside of sailing, Blackburn has a PhD in Human Movement Studies and was an

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

scholarship holder.AIS at the Olympics

References

External links

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Sports Mind Skills products

1970 births Living people Australian male sailors (sport) Laser class world champions Olympic sailors for Australia Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in sailing Sailors at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Laser Sailors at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Laser Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Laser Australian Institute of Sport sailors Sportsmen from New South Wales Sailors (sport) from Sydney Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics World champions in sailing for Australia 20th-century Australian sportsmen 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-yachtracing-bio-stub