Aust sailors' final day dipped in silver

When sailor Will Ryan fell into Rio's Guanabara Bay, he wasn't just worried about the polluted waters.

He had the silver medal on his mind.

Ryan and teammate Mat Belcher nearly lost their shot at a silver medal when Ryan became a man overboard.

In footage of the incident, the Australian lost his balance when his feet slipped off the side of the boat.

Belcher desperately tries to haul in his mate but gusts of wind kept the boat's momentum moving forward and Ryan's body swinging in the wake.

With the waves crashing over his head, Ryan manages to just hang on.

Lucky for the pair, the fall wasn't big enough to unseat both sailors and Belcher was finally able to haul in Ryan with an impressive one-arm grab.

The chasing Greeks immediately overtook the Australian 470 pair and surged three seconds ahead on the final leg.

But quick as flash the Australians recovered, overtook the Greek pair and claimed the second spot on the podium.

"I just slipped and fell straight in. Obviously Mat (Belcher) pulled me back out of the water one-handed really quickly and got me back in the boat and back into it," Ryan said.

Belcher was happy to joke about the speed with which he came to the aid of his teammate afterwards.

"I was worried about the water quality," he said of Guanabara Bay which came under fire in the lead-up to the Games because of its high levels of pollution.