Ballet dancer parents gave sailor ‘power and agility’ to clinch gold
ONE of the sailors behind a maritime medal rush for Britain yesterday believes he owes his success to his parents being ballet dancers.
Dylan Fletcher gets his “flexibility and power” from his father, Graham, a former principal dancer with the Royal Ballet and his mother, Jane, who danced with the English National Ballet.
After partnering Stuart Bithell to the men’s 49er gold yesterday, Fletcher’s thoughts turned to wedding arrangements. His soon-to-be-bride Charlotte Dobson, who had just finished sixth 49er FX class in the same Enoshima Yacht Harbour, met him off the boat.
They are getting married in Pennsylvania Castle in Portland, Dorset, this month and still have all arrangements to complete. “Time pressure will make us organised, we’ll be decisive,” said Dobson, who is planning a big white wedding.
On a thrilling day in the sailing, Fletcher and Bithell took gold within hours of Giles Scott defending his Finn title. John Gimson and Anna Burnet had won silver in the mixed Nacra 17 class.
A late charge from Scott, 34, saw him snatch fourth to clinch his second gold, while Fletcher, 31, and Bithell, 34, also left it late to edge Germany in their medal race to overhaul New Zealand.
Dobson said of her fiancé: “He’ll have that gold medal on the dining room table for a while. That will be one of the sailing moments of the Games. It epitomises the yin and yang of sport. You risk feeling terrible to feel like that.”
Fletcher, 33, from London, described the finish as “mind blowing” and revealed that he had dreamt they would leave Japan with gold medals. “It was last week a few days before racing. I was like ‘don’t engage, don’t tell anyone that’ but it was amazing to feel that dream come true. It wasn’t quite that close in my dream.”
He had previously explained how his parents are “quite small and flexible and quite powerful from their ballet – that’s definitely helped me”. “The role I’ve ended up in in sailing is one where you have to be quite powerful, quite flexible and agile – I’m the helm in the high-performance 49er class,” he added.
Britain should enjoy success in the Finn while it lasts. Having debuted in 1952, British sailors have won the last six titles going back to Sydney 2000. But it is being dropped for Paris 2024.