Stephanie "Steph" Bridge (born 14 July 1972) is a British kitesurfer who became the World

Formula Kite Formula Kite is the kitesurfing class chosen by World Sailing for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The class features a foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil. The equipment is not one-design, but instead competitors use their choice of approved producti ...

champion five times between 2009 and 2016. She is the leading figure in the "Team Bridge" family.

Life

Bridge was born on 14 July 1972. She won her first Formula Kite World Championship at the

St. Francis Yacht Club The St. Francis Yacht Club is a private sailing club located in San Francisco. History Founded in 1927, the Saint Francis Yacht Club (StFYC) was formed when some of the members of the San Francisco Yacht Club decided to move their clubhouse from ...

in San Francisco in 2009. This was the final race of six championship races and qualification rounds. Sean Farley took the men's championship. She won four more Formula Kite World Championships between 2009 and 2016, and two medals at the Formula Kite European Championships, gold in 2012 and silver in 2016. In 2012 she was in Cagliari in Italy at the Kiteboard Course Racing World championships. She took the silver medal after being narrowly beaten by the American Erika Heineken who took the gold. In 2015 she set out from

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

in the Isle of Wight accompanied by her son . They said this a practice run for a later record attempt but fifteen year old Guy broke the record when he returned to Cowes as the youngest person to complete the 60 mile circuit by kite-surfing. His time was 3 hours and 34 minutes and Steph's time was just under four hours. In 2016 she was not only ranked the best woman kite surfer in the world but her three sons all held titles. Her eldest son, , was the Men's European Race Champion, her youngest son, Tom Bridge, was the European Youth Freestyle Champion and her middle son, Guy Bridge, was the world champion at Youth Freestyle. Steph Bridge took the bronze medal in the 2016 World Championship at

Weifang Weifang ( zh, s=潍坊, t=濰坊, p=Wéifāng) is a prefecture-level city in central Shandong province, People's Republic of China. The city borders Dongying to the northwest, Zibo to the west, Linyi to the southwest, Rizhao to the south, Qingdao ...

Binhai in China. In that year

Daniela Moroz Daniela Moroz ( ; born 2 February 2001) is an American sailor who became the World champion at Formula Kite six times between 2016 and 2022. Life Moroz was born in Berkeley in 2001. Her parents were Czech immigrants. They had both left their co ...

won her first world title in light winds. An 18 year old Russian, Elena Kalinina, was second. In 2020 when the UK launched a campaign to find more leading women kite surfers for the 2024 Olympics it was Steph Bridge who was mentioned.

Private life

She married Eric Bridge and their three boys are professional kitesurfers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridge, Steph British kitesurfers 1972 births Living people People from Exmouth