Aussie sailing great Matt Wearn's major win in quest to match Fraser and Hoy
Sailing champion Matt Wearn's quest to match swimming royalty Dawn Fraser and equestrian legend Andrew Hoy at the 2028 Olympics got off to a dream start in a winning performance in Spain on the weekend.
Wearn suited up for his first international tournament since the Paris 2024 Olympics, and his first of the Los Angeles 2028 cycle, in a Sailing Grand Slam regatta at Spain's Trofeo Princesa Sofía.
And the two-time Olympic gold medallist produced a commanding performance to haul in the ILCA 7 title — a discipline in which sailors go toe-to-toe in small single-handed dinghies.
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Only two Australians have won Olympic gold in the same event at three consecutive Games: Fraser, who did so in the 100m freestyle at Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964, and Hoy, who achieved the feat in team eventing across Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
Wearn will join that exclusive club if he claims gold in the ILCA 7 at the Los Angeles Olympics in two years' time.
"It's amazing to be on the top step [of the podium] again," Wearn, with a beaming smile, said in Spain.
"I probably didn't really expect to have this result at this point in the campaign ... but I'm super stoked to be winning Palma. It's been a few years since I was able to do it last [in Palma], so it's really nice to start the [Olympic] campaign off on the European circuit with a win."
Matt Wearn celebrates his win in Spain. Supplied
As Wearn can attest to, even Olympic champions grapple with self-doubt.
"In the scheme of things, there was always a bit of doubt there whether having the time off you'd come back [struggling] and [wondering] where you'd sit in the fleet, and there was that little bit of doubt, I guess," Wearn said.
"So, yeah, it's super nice to sit here right at the front, and it gives us the confidence going into the next couple of years that we're doing the right things again, and things can probably only hopefully get better."
Wearn won gold in the ILCA 7 at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, where the discipline was called laser, and successfully defended his title at the Paris Games.
The Perth product became the first-ever back-to-back Olympic champion in the men's dinghy class in France.
The Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta kicked off the Sailing Grand Slam season. Next up is the Semaine Olympique Française regatta, taking place in France later this month.
