Sébastien Godefroid

Sébastien Godefroid

Sébastien (Sebbe) Godefroid (born March 19, 1971 in Antwerp ) is a Belgian sailor , world champion and Olympic silver medalist. At the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing , he carried the flag into the stadium for the Belgian Olympic team . He lives in the coastal town of Bredene in West Flanders and is a member of the Ostend Sailing & Racing Club (OSRC) in Ostend .

Life

Ostend harbor , Godefroid's sailing waters

Godefroid studied at the Faculty of Sport and Physiotherapy of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) and was involved in the Topsport study project. He graduated with a diploma in sports science (Licentiaat in de Lichamelijke Opvoeding) .

Sébastien Godefroid received his sailing training in Antwerp's Royal Liberty Yacht Club (Koninklijke Liberty Yacht Club, KLYC). After winning the sailing world championship in 2001, two vice world championships and an Olympic silver medal, he ended his Olympic career after the 2008 games. In February 2009, the Flemish Yacht Association (Vlaamse Yachting Federatie, VYF) appointed him as association trainer. Due to his education, his knowledge and his sporting experience, the VYF sees him as the ideal candidate for this newly created position. Godefroid aims to encourage and coach young sailors in particular. He is also supposed to advise the association on technical matters and prepare the Belgian sailing team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London in terms of sport and tactics . Under the name Quest for Gold , Godefroid had already prepared the Olympic 2012 objective on a private initiative.

Sporting successes

In the Finn dinghy

Until 2004 Godefroid started in the one-man dinghy Finn Dinghi . The first years of his international regattas were dominated by a duel with the Polish sailor Mateusz Kusznierewicz .

Finn dinghy regatta

At the European sailing championships in 1996, he won the bronze medal behind Kusznierewicz. In the sailing area of Savannah , both of them moved up one place at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta , so that Godefroid crossed the finish line behind the Pole and gold medalist. With this Olympic silver medal he achieved his greatest sporting success. The 1998 European Championships won Godefroid and relegated Kusznierewicz to fifth place. At the sailing world championships in Weymouth in 2000 , he lost to the victorious Poland and finished as runner-up world champion. 2001 in Marblehead he was able to turn the result again and won the world championship before Kusznierewicz. The 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney ended Godefroid in seventh place like the 2004 Summer Games in Athens .

Change to the two-handed catamaran

After the 2004 Olympics, Sébastien Godefroid changed boat classes in order to form a team in the open tornado (two-handed catamaran ) together with his girlfriend Carolijn Brouwer , she as helmswoman , he as crew . The couple set themselves the goal of winning a medal in the fastest Olympic sailing class to date at the next summer games. The native Dutch Brouwer and multiple world champion in the single-handed - dinghy Laser took the medal project the Belgian citizenship on to be able to start in Beijing in 2008 for the Belgian team.

Boat class tornado

In 2005, Brouwer / Godefroid took third place in the Volvo Champions Race in Travemuender Woche . In 2007 in Cascais , the couple, which had split up on a private level, won the runner-up in the world championship behind the Spanish crew Fernando Echávarri / Antón Paz . The dream of the Olympic medal failed, because at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing Brouwer / Godefroid only took 12th place in the Qingdao International Sailing Center .

Reason for failure: failed relationship with Brouwer

What was remarkable about the last regattas was that Carolijn Brouwer was now close friends with the immediate competitor Darren Bundock from Australia . The six-time world champion Bundock sat together with Glenn Ashby on the runners of the catamaran and won his second Olympic silver medal in Qingdao. In the qualification Brouwer / Godefroid (second place) had left the Australian crew Bundock / Ashby (fourth place) behind. Sébastien Godefroid attributed the poor performance in the final of the Beijing Games with 12th place to his failed relationship with Carolijn Brouwer:

“Another oldie took the disappointing performance in Beijing a little more philosophically. Sailor Sébastien Godefroid, still winner of the silver medal in Atlanta and standard bearer in China, blamed his failed relationship with Carolijn Brouwer for the somewhat mixed performance. I have learned a lot as a person. The fact that I no longer live with her and still tackled the competition with her didn't boost performance. "

- Tired medalists, Godefroid an experience richer, in: Grenz-Echo , August 27, 2008

Among other things, the magazine Stern reported in 2008 on the competition and relationship problems of the sailing couples under the heading Confused Relationships in the Tornado .

Sporting successes, overview

EM = European Sailing Championships (only places one to three), WM = World Sailing Championships (only places one to three), OLY = Summer Olympic Games (all placements)

• 1996: Bronze: EC Finn
• 1996: Silver: OLY Finn
• 1998: Gold: EM Finn
• 2000: Silver: WM Finn
• 2000: 7th place: OLY Finn
• 2001: Bronze: EC Finn
• 2001: Gold: WM Finn
• 2004: 7th place: OLY Finn
• 2007: Silver: WM Tornado (with Carolijn Brouwer)
• 2008: 12th place: OLY Tornado (with Carolijn Brouwer)

Web links

• questforgold, Sebbe Godefroid Homepage Sébastien Godefroid (accessed March 4, 2009)
• Ostend Sailing & Racing Club (OSRC) (accessed March 4, 2009)
• Koninklijke Liberty Yacht Club (KLYC), Antwerp (accessed March 4, 2009)
• Vlaamse Yachting Federatie (VYF) (accessed March 4, 2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tired medalist, Godefroid an experience richer , In: Grenz-Echo , August 27, 2008 [1] (accessed March 4, 2009)
2. ^ Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Sébastien Godefroid (accessed March 4, 2009)
3. ↑ Vlaamse Zeilfederatie s Sebastien Godefroid slaan handen in mekaar . In: De Standaard , February 20, 2009 [2] (accessed March 4, 2009)
4. ↑ questforgold, Sebbe Godefroid ( Memento of the original from March 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed March 4, 2009) 
5. ↑ ISAF World Sailing: Sebastien Godefroid, Gold Cup winner (accessed March 4, 2009)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Sébastien Godefroid in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
7. ↑ Lübeck News, September 11, 2005  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed March 4, 2009)  
8. ↑ Tatjana Pokorny: Confusion of relationships in the tornado . In: stern.de Olympia 2008, August 15, 2008 (accessed March 4, 2009)