Malcolm Page’s entree to the world of sailing was anything but smooth. He recounts a story when he was five years old.

‘My two bigger, older bully brothers got hold of me and threw me in a sailing boat and it half swamped and I was scared, petrified, cried my eyes out; didn’t enjoy the experience at all.’

Before long his confidence grew and within a couple of years he was racing with those same brothers and was totally captured by the sport; saying to this day he still dreams about sailing, his last race, next race and ways he can improve.

Malcolm Page has achieved many great feats and has appropriately been inducted into the Australian Institute of Sport’s Best of the Best Hall of Fame in 2011. Malcolm Page has now won seven world titles with six of them in the 470 class. With former team mate Nathan Wilmot also won the Olympic test event in Qingdao in 2007 and Gold at the Beijing Games for the same event.

The London Games will be Page’s third and final Olympics and will see him attempt to become the first Australian sailor to win back to back gold. In preparation for London, Page started competing with a new skipper, Matthew Belcher. Their progress was slow but consistent and saw them move through the ranks from 43 to number 1 by 2010. Together Belcher and Page have taken out back to back championships in 2010 and 2011.

In the lead up to Beijing, Page and Wilmot’s goal was to simply come home with a medal. Today the goal is clear; it is gold all the way. It’s no surprise considering Page and Belcher’s current form firmly on top. Malcolm was recently quoted as saying ‘We’re sitting in the box seat, so it’s up to us to lose rather than them to win.’

Page credits both AIS head coach Victor Kovalenko and the Australian National Training Centre as part of his success. Victor is not considered just a coach, but rather a mentor and friend.

Sailing’s Australian National Training Centre, is located on Middle Harbor in Sydney. This facility is a partnership between the AIS, Yachting Australia, and the Middle Harbor Yacht Club. This facility coupled with groundbreaking technology has kept Australian sailing at the top of the world stage.