Sir Ben Ainslie - Olympic and America's Cup Winning Sailor HARDtalk

30 years. Now it is time for HARDtalk.

Welcome to HARDtalk. Like yesterday is the most successful Olympic

sailor of all time. The dish four`time Olympic gold`medallist Sir

Ben Ainsle. In September he was part of team USA, which enjoyed a

spectacular victory against team New Zealand at the America's Cup in San

Francisco. But sailing is becoming more and more expensive, with

critics saying it is now a niche sport funded by billionaire is and

enjoyed by the few. How can its appeal be broadened?

`` billionaires. Sir Ben Ainsle, welcome to HARDtalk.

Thank you for having me. You started sailing when you were eight. I know

we are talking about water, but you had a baptism of fire? It is a great

story. When I was a youngster I learnt to shell with my family. My

parents had been handed down a small dinghy. I work up on Christmas

morning and found it. It was in my bedroom. I went down to the local

beach with my dad. I had never assailed on my own before. He pushed

me off on Christmas morning. He said that we are off to the pub for

lunch, a mile up the creek. He pushed me off and I will never

forget the sensation of, as an eight`year`old, being in total

control of my own destiny with no adults around telling me what to do.

That sense of freedom is something I will never forget. No lifejacket?

What your father did was barely legal. Exactly. Social Security

would have a field day today. But he developed an obsession for the

sport. That is right. Ever since I was a kid I was fascinated by

sailing. It is such a diverse sport. There are so many different

challenges. But one of the most powerful women in sport, Baroness

Sue Campbell, has said that parents who push their children to play a

specific game from a young age, if we specialise too early we actually

build our children to become very bored and almost stale with the

activity. Can parents put a child of a sport? I would agree with that.

You have to be careful with young people. They are developing at such

a fast age. Just because someone happens to be fantastic at a certain

age group, does not mean will become a world beater. Your parents really

supported you. That is right. The opposite for children is true. My

parents were a huge support. You'd be pushing? No. My dad said that if

I wanted to try and do a sport properly, you should do it `` give

it everything you have got. But they never criticised if I could not get

the result. They just love the fact that I was into something. I wasn't

causing too much trouble. I was out there and working hard. You are in

quite a sailing mad family. If you feel that you missed out on other

experiences? There is an element of that. When I was 17 and had to make

a choice between studying for university or racing for the Olympic

Games in 1996. At that time I really felt the best option was to train

for the Olympics. So I missed out on a university education and some

friendships that a maybe would have had if I had given more time to

other things in life. But I would not change any of the decisions are

made. Was sailing a refuge for you? You were bullied at school. You had

a skin condition. I could have probably chosen a better sport. It

is quite uncomfortable a lot of the time. But did it make you retreat

into your sailing? I think so. People try and talk up the amount of

bullying that I receive. All kids at times suffer from some kind of

intimidation of bullying. In my case it was upsetting and I found it

difficult to deal with at that age. Sailing was something that I was

good at and could express myself through my sailing. It gave me the

determination to achieve something. It make you very competitive. It has

been set a view by Henry Winter back in 2008 that you have a sustained

level of ruthlessness that grips you when you settle across the water.

You are very competitive. I am. I am very competitive with my sailing. If

I am in a sailing race, I want to win. But in other areas of life,

playing football with my friends or golf, I am not competitive at all.

You say it all for the sailing. Exactly. I just let other people

take it. There is an idea of being balanced between competitive or a

big on the site of good sportsmanship. You won your first

Olympic medal in 1996. In 2000 in Sydney you when your first gold

medal. But you want another gold medal in a fairly controversial

circumstance. You are accused of blocking tactics. Is that good

sportsmanship? The thing with that Olympics is that we have seen this

tactics being used before, but never at the Olympic Games. It highlighted

what was going on. There was a lot of controversy about it. Ultimately

I used the rules of the road. I got an advantage on the opposition and

got the gold medal. People were very annoyed, the Brazilians. You needed

a police escort. There were a few Brazilians who were not too happy.

But when I went to Rio, they could not have been more accommodating.

That style of racing is something that we saw developed after the 2000

Olympics. It is now encouraged by the format. The top ten boats go

into the final race. That encourages the interaction between the

competitors for the medals. It was quite groundbreaking at the time. In

seven terms it was perfectly within the rules. The UK top temperature of

times? Clearly. `` hot tempered. There was the incident in Australia

during the World Championship when you got so fed up with the

television are tampering your course, you swam over to them and

remonstrated with them. In hindsight, that was a mistake. I

paid the price for that in being disqualified from two races. You

wrote your lesson? For sure. It was a bad lesson to have to go through.

But when you are racing at that level for the World Championship and

an Olympic medal, you are fighting as hard as you can. It is an intense

sport. When you are working that hard it is hard to make those key

decisions and deal with the ultimate frustration that I was. You are now

being applauded for your latest success with the US team guiding

them to victory over New Zealand in the America's Cup. It must rank as

one of the greatest comebacks in history. It you like being the

underdog and surprising everybody? Everybody thought New Zealand was

going to win. I do not think we enjoyed the situation. We started on

`2 points before the race for a technical infringement. It was

amazing to be part of a team that really stuck to their guns. There

was no finger`pointing or heated arguments. We made some changes to

the crew and the setup of the boat. It came down to the designers. It

was akin to Formula 1. America's Cup is the saving version of Formula 1.

It was just fantastic to be part of that team. In the buildup to the

America's Cup, it was very tragically marred by the fact that

Andrew Simson was killed in May while sailing for a Swedish team.

His catamaran capsized and he drowned. That was dramatic for you.

He was one of my best friends. It was a heartbreaking moment to

witness that crashed, that accident. The skipper for the art in this team

won the all a bit medals together. We were very close. To witness that

and to have to deal with that was very hard for everybody close to

Andrew. Did it make you feel like quitting? It did. After the accident

a lot of us were close friends. We were dealing with the situation. I

remember sitting with Iain Percy, talking about what we were going to

do in the future. It makes you stop and re`evaluate what you are doing

with your life. Did it make you question this development that we

have seen in sailing in the past few years, using these catamarans that

are at a speed of over 60 kilometres per hour. An American software

billionaire who owns the US team that won the America's Cup says a

lot of people are certainly interested in sailing. Does the

sport this fast, more dangerous vessels in order to attract the

fans? A lot of us were surprised when the decision was made by the

leaders of the team to shift from the traditional hulls. I was one of

the original critics. But when we saw the event, it was really

phenomenal. It was groundbreaking. We have seen that with the America's

Cup. The level of effort that has gone into the production and the

speed of the votes, the athleticism required has frankly been awesome.

`` boats. Coming back after the America's Cup and the response from

people in the street who would not necessarily watch saving suddenly

get it. `` sailing. They can understand what is happening. All of

a sudden they want to watch sailing. It is truly transformative. One

newspaper in New Zealand said that it would be like living the Ferrari

in the garage and taking the Morris 1000 to work. Do you think that the

slow hulls should be ditched for ever? I do not know that for ever.

But I think the new hulls are here to stay. Just because of the

success. But you do not think ditching the old hulls is desirable

either? It clearly has a place in professional sailing. If it has a

place in the immediate future of the America's Cup, I doubt very much.

But that is a decision for the team leaders to make. They are the

defenders of the America's Cup. They will write the rules. They wanted to

bring the Spectator closer to the shore, but the ratings were still

very low compared to others ports. The opening weekend generated an

audience of 1 million? It is not create a huge audience, but as we

went through this amazing comeback story, the actual figures of the

commercial returns and TV audiences have increased. It has been a huge

success of the sport, something we have never seen before in sailing.

It is very positive for the future. Failing has usually been confined to

the backwaters of the sporting world. It is that good results would

lead you to becoming a household name in any other sport. Why do you

think it is that sailing is seen as a niche sport? In the past it has

been seen as a lease is sport, gin and tonic is on the upper deck, and

comments like that. In the past 15 years it has changed hugely when you

look at the amazing achievements. The results we had as an Olympic

sport, sailing is one of the top achievers. Now, the America's Cup is

changing this misconception that sailing is an elitist sport. It is a

sport for normal people, for athletes. It is still very

synonymous with money, isn't it? It takes $100 million to fund a sailing

campaign in the America's Cup. The America's Cup has traditionally been

a race for early mess. It is an eye`catching one. The tide is

turning on that. In the future will see more commercial teams racing.

They are keen to slash the cost is and budgets these campaigns.

Traditionally it has been around the hundred million dollars to have a

successful campaign. We hope to see they come down in the future. It

means you have a small number of people in almost monopolistic grip

on the big races. The daily Telegraph in the UK describes as the

ultimate vanity project is for billionaires. There is an argument

that. If that the team from New Zealand, they were as close as you

can ever come to winning without winning a trophy, they were based on

New Zealand, they relied on government funding and private

funding. If a country like New Zealand can put forward a team to be

as close as that to winning, if there is proof that it can be done

commercially and it is a viable prospect. If you look at the UK,

sailing in the UK gets funding around $40 million. It is the same

fulsome in athletics, sports with a much wider mass appeal. The figures

right should have such a comparator will amount? Sailing is a high

participation sport. Maybe it doesn't have the profile of some

these sports, but in terms of participation is right up there. We

saw in the wake of last summer 's Olympics, a 50% increase in people

taking part the sport. But to accept that it has an image problem, that

it is seen as a niche pastime? I think it did have, I do not or if it

still does. It is changing rapidly. The first man to sail solo and,

non`stop around the world, said he could run a yacht in less than it

would cost you to watch a foot or team per year. The problem is

politicians here yachts and they think Monte Carlo. Please refer to

comments by Ed Miliband who talked about a rising tide is left all

yachts. `` does not lift. It comes back to a misconception. So the rest

problem with the image. `` there is a problem. It used to, but it is not

me more. That came from this horrible elitist idea of people

owning yachts and being billionaires. It is expected to get

into sailing for youngsters. All sailing clubs have some kind of

initiative to get local kids into the sport. I was going to ask you.

Here you are, in your 30s, the best Olympic sailor of all time, you have

been knighted, it is say you can quite happily walked on the street

and not get mobbed. You say you are thankful you still have some level

of privacy. Should you be saying that? All should you raise your

profile to make people notice the sport? It is changing. Unfortunately

I was in New York with my girlfriend and we were sought by some

photographers. It is very embarrassing to have to say that,

but I think the sport is changing. It is an indication. Someone at the

sport is having that kind of attention. `` of the top of the

sport. It is great for sailing. To be successful you have to work

incredibly hard. A tough physical sport. You have experienced terrible

backpain through your career. He had some surgery not long ago. There is

a price to pay for being a top sportsmen like you. The risk, for

any sport. I have had long`term back issues all through my career. It

came to a head before the 2012 Olympics. I had to undergo surgery.

It was a race against time to get back to full foot this `` fitness.

Most sports people go through injuries. It is part of competing at

the top levels. You were the first Briton to be aboard a winning teams

and 1903. 163 years. The cup is held every three or four years. You want

a British team in the America's Cup. Can you get the finance behind your

own challenge? The America's Cup started in 1851 in the Isle of

Wight. The American boat won the trophy and renamed it the America's

Cup. We have not seen it since. Australia won it in 1983 and New

Zealand wines in 1995 and 2000. We have a proud maritime heritage. It

is a shame that we have never had the cup back. It is time to change

that. Will it happen? Will you get the finance? I am working to get the

money together. There is a shift in the traditional billionaires race.

We expect to see that come down significantly. It is still a huge

ask to get the funding together. It will be a mixture of commercial and

private funding to run one of these teams and is to be a team of

equitable chance of winning. We want to bring the cup back to the UK. Are

you positive about this? Do you think it will happen? I am positive.

With a small scene we have on working hard broker will of years

now. We wouldn't do that unless we believed it was possible. It will be

a fantastic challenge. Is a deal imminent? I could not say. We have

on working hard, we have some great contact and we will know a lot more

in the near future. The British champion of the world champion

Formula 1 car has spoken publicly of designing and America's Cup yachts

in the future. Would you want him as part of your British challenge? I

think any team would jump at the chance to have him involved. I think

the red Bull team has had phenomenal success in Formula 1. It is clearly

not through chance. They have worked incredibly hard to come up with a

team, a design group and an overall team who work hard. Have you

approached in? We have spoken a number of occasions. `` on a number

of occasions. He is a sailor, he has his own boat. They are not sure he

gets much free time, but when he does, he is sailing. We would love

to speak to him if he decides to move away from Formula 1. Many teams

would love to have him on their team. We'll be CU competing in the

Olympics in 2016? Very unlikely. I said last year that it was done for

me. To compete in front of a home crowd, that was the ultimate

experience. You can not feel any proud than that. My goals are now

based mainly around the America's Cup. Thank you to coming on

HARDtalk. Good morning. After all the mile and

wet weather we have had a month, but we are seeing at the moment comes as

a shock. Clear skies have allowed the temperatures to fall away. An

unusually cold start today. A bright start with and sunshine, but more

wet and windy weather waiting off the Atlantic. It is this thickening

cloud that will bring the rain. It has been producing one or two Mac

showers. We have sent averages falling away quite sharply in all

parts of