Luke Patience (born 4 August 1986) is a British Olympic sailor. He competed with Stuart Bithell at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the team won a silver medal.

Luke Patience
September 2012 in Glasgow
Personal information
Born4 August 1986 (1986-08-04) (age 38)
Aberdeen, Scotland
Height167 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Weight59 kg (130 lb)
Sailing career
Class(es)470, 420, Optimist, Etchells
Club Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club
Medal record
Sailing
Representing  Great Britain
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2012 London Men's 470
World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2009 Denmark Men's 470
Silver medal – second place 2011 Perth Men's 470
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Germany Junior Men's 470
European Championships
Silver medal – second place 2014 Greece Men's 470
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Turkey Men's 470

Personal life

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Patience was born on 4 August 1986, in Aberdeen, Scotland.[1]

Sailing

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Patience and Stuart Bithell were selected to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom in the men's 470 class ahead of Chris Grube and Nick Rogers.[2] heading into the final race of the event the pair were guaranteed at least a silver medal but had to beat the leading Australian crew of Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page with a boat between them to take gold. Patience and Bithell finished fourth in the race with the Australian's second, meaning they took the silver medal.[3]

 
Luke Patience, Hannah Mills, Saskia Clark & Paul Goodison at Weymouth's Olympic Parade in 2012

In December 2012 Patience and Bithell ended their partnership, with Bithell moving to partner Grube in the 49er skiff class.[4][5] Patience remained in the 470 class and joined up with Joe Glanfield who had previously won silver medals at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics before choosing to retire.[6] They won a silver medal at the 2013 European Sailing Championships behind Sofian Bouvet and Jeremie Mion of France.[7] However, in February 2014, Glanfield again chose to retire.[8]

Following Glanfield's retirement Patience joined up with crewman Elliot Willis.[9] In July 2014 they won a gold medal at the 470 European Championship event held in Athens.[10] They also won a silver medal at the test event for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and finished in fourth place at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championships.[11] Based on these results the pair were selected to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the men's 470 class.[12]

In March 2016 Patience was forced to find a new partner after Willis was diagnosed with bowel cancer and had to withdraw from the Olympics; he teamed up with Chris Grube and had to requalify for the Olympics.[13] They took part in a World Cup event at Hyères in France, despite suffering a black flag disqualification in one race they finished tenth overall.[14][15] In May 2016 Patience and Grube were confirmed as the Great Britain team's entry for the men's 470 in Rio.[16][17]

Patience and Grube have again qualified to represent Great Britain at the 2020 Summer Olympics in the 470 class.[18][19]

References

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  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Luke Patience". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  2. ^ "London 2012: Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell picked in 470 class for Team GB". BBC Sport. 9 January 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  3. ^ Hodgetts, Rob (10 August 2012). "Olympics sailing: Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell win silver". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  4. ^ Alexander, Stuart (19 December 2012). "Olympic silver medal pairing Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell split up". The Independent. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  5. ^ Hope, Nick (17 January 2013). "Rio 2016: Stuart Bithell to partner Chris Grube in 49er class". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  6. ^ "Rio 2016: Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield team up in 470 class". BBC Sport. 3 March 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  7. ^ "Euros silver and bronze concludes British sailors' Italian job". Royal Yachting Association. 17 June 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  8. ^ "Olympic sailing: Joe Glanfield, Double silver medallist, retires". BBC Sport. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  9. ^ "Elliot Willis and Luke Patience to bid for Olympic gold in 470 class". BBC Sport. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  10. ^ "Luke Patience & Elliot Willis win European 470 gold". BBC Sport. 14 July 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  11. ^ Bailey, Trevor (5 December 2015). "Sailing: Scot Luke Patience stunned by Rio partner Elliot Willis's cancer diagnosis". The National. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  12. ^ "Aberdeen's Luke Patience announced in Team GB sailing line-up for Rio 2016". The Herald. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  13. ^ "Elliot Willis out of GB sailing team for cancer treatment". BBC Sport. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  14. ^ "Dempsey takes World Cup lead in Hyeres". Eurosport. 30 April 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  15. ^ "Sailor Biography Luke Patience". ISAF. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  16. ^ Lewis, Jane (4 May 2016). "Rio 2016: Luke Patience secures spot in GB Olympic sailing team". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  17. ^ Brown, Luke (5 May 2016). "Rio 2016: Luke Patience secures Olympic spot as Team GB sailing squad is finalised". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
  18. ^ "Elliot Hanson completes Team GB's Tokyo 2020 sailing line-up". TeamGB.com. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  19. ^ "Entry List by Event: Sailing: Men's Two Person Dinghy - 470" (PDF). Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
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