Mitchell Jay "Mitch" Booth (born 4 January 1963, in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

) is a

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. While the term ''sailor'' ...

from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, who represented his native country for the first time at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Booth as helmsman in the Australian

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

with John Forbes as crew took Bronze. In

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

, Booth made a second appearance this time with crew member

Andrew Landenberger Andrew Landenberger (born 15 September 1966) is an Australian sailor and Olympic medalist. He won a silver medal in the Tornado class at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia together with Mitch Booth. Life and career Born in Graft ...

the team took the Silver in the

. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

Athens 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 ...

Booth represented the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

as helmsman of the Dutch

. With crew member Herbert Dercksen Booth took 5th place. His final Olympic appearance came during the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

. Now with crew member Pim Nieuwenhuis in the Dutch

, Booth finished 5th.

Sailing career

Booth started his sailing career at the age of four, when his mother taught him the basics on

Pittwater Pittwater is a semi-mature tide dominated Ria, drowned valley estuary, located about north of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from th ...

. Alongside his father John (Jay) Booth won his first State Championship as a seven-year-old boy. His father honored his desire to skipper and compete in international competitions. His first break-through came at the age of seventeen, when finishing second in an Australian Championship. This achievement guaranteed his participation at the World Championship in 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 ...

. From a fleet of over hundred boats representing nine countries, he and his crew went on to win the title. Since then Booth has made his life as a professional sailor. The projects have varied from Olympic sailing to Ocean racing and to keel boat racing. Off the water he has been involved in many sailing related activities including the creation of the current Olympic Tornado class Rig, design and build of A Class cats, the creation of Volvo

Extreme 40 The Extreme 40 is a class of sailing catamaran created by TornadoSport and designed by Yves Loday. The boats are 40 feet long and are constructed out of carbon fibre. They have a top speed of about and can sail at about in 20–25 knots of wind ...

, sailing Manager for America's cup team (1995) and technical adviser to ISAF. In total he took part in 64 World Championships, becoming World Champion a total of ten times. In the 50 national championships in which he took part he took the title a total of 13 times. He has won 23 out of 47 Australian State Championships in which he performed. He won eight European titles since becoming Dutch in sixteen starts. He took part in four Olympics. In 2000 Sydney he was coach of the Australian national team squad.

Awards and records

He has been named the 1992 Australian Yachtsman of the Year, the 1993 Caltex Sports Star finalist, three times NSW Yachtsman of the Year, the 1995 America's Cup sailing manager, the 1996 MMI Sports Star finalist, the 1996 Australian Yachtsman of the Year and the 2004 Dutch Sailor of the year. He was also crew member of the boats holding the previous World 24-hour distance record and Transatlantic (

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

) record holder (ClubMed) and the current Round Britain and Ireland record ( PlayStation (yacht)).

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Mitch 1963 births Living people Australian male sailors (sport) Dutch male sailors (sport) Sailors at the 1992 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Tornado Sailors at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Tornado Olympic sailors for Australia Olympic sailors for the Netherlands Olympic silver medalists for Australia Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Olympic medalists in sailing China Team sailors Extreme Sailing Series sailors Sailors (sport) from Sydney Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Tornado class world champions F18 class world champions World champions in sailing for Australia Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen 20th-century Dutch sportsmen