Nick Dempsey makes history with third windsurfing medal

Nick Dempsey has made history by winning silver in the windsurfing event at Rio 2016, becoming the first man to win three Olympic medals in the sport and adding another medal to Team GB’s Brazilian collection.

He won silver in London 2012, and took his first medal with bronze at the 2004 Games in Athens.

Holland’s Dorian van Rijsselberge won the gold in the RS:X class event, and was the defending champion after picking up the same medal in London 2012 – Dempsey’s strong showing in the earlier races had guaranteed at least silver, but overturning the Dutchman’s lead ultimately proved one challenge too many.

As a result, the ‘medal race’ really only saw the bronze in contention, and it was France’s Pierre Le Coq won picked it up, pipping Poland’s Piotr Myszka. Dempsey crossed the finish line in this final race in fourth, knowing that it would not impact his final classification.

After the event, he said: “I feel very happy to have won a silver medal. It’s cool, it’s amazing. It’s nice to have had a good spell at the top and be competitive over five Olympic Games. I’m pretty proud of that.

“I’m unemployed as of next week – I’ll have to get a job. I’d like to do photography if I can make it work, and a bit of coaching. I’d like some new challenges and new goals and I want to keep being driven in life and achieve something else.”

In an offhand comment, Dempsey suggested he may like to go for a sixth Olympic Games by competing at Tokyo 2020, although he later said: “Probably not.”

Dempsey’s coach, Dom Tidey, said: “What a way to go out. There was no stress and he could soak it all up. Hopefully it’s not his last race at an Olympics, I’m going to try to convince him to do another!”