Paris 2024 Olympics: ILCA 7 champion Matt Wearn has target on his back in sailing regatta

Drones, cameras, boatloads of coaches. Our top medal hope in sailing at the Olympics is used to being a marked man and nothing has changed in Marseille.

Matt Wearn training in Marseille ahead of his regatta.                        

Drones, cameras, boatloads of coaches. Our top Australian medal hope in sailing at the Paris Olympics is used to being a marked man.

And while Matt Wearn might not be always recognisable to Australian sport fans, he is one of the most followed men - literally - in international sailing circles.

Wearn starts the Paris Olympic regatta as the only Australian sailor ranked inside the top three on world rankings and with stellar results to back his favouritism.

At the Tokyo Games three years ago the European based sailor won gold in the Laser class - renamed the ILCA 7 for the 2024 Olympics - on debut and then backed up with two world titles on his comeback from a debilitating bout of long Covid.

Rarely out of the winners circle, Wearn has become used to prying eyes whenever he takes to the water.

Matt Wearn after winning his last world championship crown in Adelaide earlier this year. Picture: Jack Fletcher

“There are spying eyes and people trying to learn what they can,” Wearn said of the attention his status in sailing now brings .

But he says but he said no longer bothers him.

“Someone has dominated for Australia for a lot of years,” Wearn said.

“So whenever we are out on the water people are watching… it’s a lot easier to do that with drones.

“But at the end of the day people aren’t going to learn that much information in such a short period of times.”

Wearn is the latest in a long list of Australian single-handed sailors rivals have been watching and monitoring in a bid to replicate their extraordinary success in international waters.

Matt Wearn training from the Marseille Marina. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images.

DAY ONE OLYMPIC WRAP

Michael Blackburn, now technical director of the Australian team was one of the first, winning bronze at the Sydney Olympics back in 2000 and world championship medals.

Tom Slingsby was next, winning Laser gold at the 2012 London Olympics in Weymouth.

Australian teammate Tom Burton then won gold at the 2016 Games in Rio with Wearn securing Australia’s third gold in succession in the single-handed boat at the delegyed Tokyo Games.

Australia has a representative in 10 of the 12 classes being raced in Marseille.

Fellow ILCA sailor Zoe Thomson is our women’s rep in the single-handed class.

The ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 racing is scheduled to start on August 1 around 8.30pm AEST.

Originally published as Paris 2024 Olympics: ILCA 7 champion Matt Wearn has target on his back in sailing regatta