Paul Elvstrøm

Paul Elvstrøm was born, north of Copenhagen, in a house overlooking the sound between Denmark and Sweden. His father was a sea captain but died when Elvstrøm was young, and he was brought up by his mother along with a brother and sister. A second brother drowned at the age of 5 when he fell off a seawall near the family home.

Growing up along the Øresund, Elvstrøm quickly became consumed by sailing, which began with crewing in a club fleet of small clinker keelboats. He was soon given an Oslo dinghy by a neighbour who realised Elvstrøm's mother was too poor to be able to buy one.

In his book Elvstrøm Speaks on Yacht Racing he claimed to be ‘word blind’ and could not read or write when he was at school, which may have been due to dyslexia. It is clear that Elvstrøm considered schooling a distraction from sailing: "I was very bad in school," he said, "The only interest I had was in sailing fast…The teacher knew that if I was not at school, I was sailing."

After leaving school he became a member of the Hellerup Sailing Club, where he gained a reputation as an excellent sailer. He was funding himself during this period as a bricklayer, but in 1954 also started cutting sails for club members in his basement.

In 1954, Elvstrøm established a manufacturing company, Elvstrøm Sails, whose products included masts, booms, and sails. Displaying a keen marketing mind to go along with his engineering nous, the business grew rapidly and by the 1970s Elvstrøm products were seen on boats all around the world.

Today, Elvstrøm Sails is among the world's leading sailmakers, employing around 300 worldwide. Elvstrøm founded his business in the family villa just north of Copenhagen. It grew out of its premises multiple times, and today, Elvstrøm Sails is based in Aabenraa in the south of Denmark.

Elvstrøm was married to Anne, who pre-deceased him by three years; together they had four daughters: Pia, Stine, Gitte and Trine.

Elvstrøm continued to sail in his later years until Parkinson's disease began to afflict him. In 2009 he sailed his Dragonfly trimaran — solo — to visit his daughter Gitte and her family on the east coast of Sweden, 600 miles from his home.

Elvstrøm's success and celebrity brought personal stress. At the 1972 Games in Munich, under the pressures of competition and his challenges facing his sail-making business, he suffered a nervous breakdown.

He died on 7 December 2016 at the age of 88, after battling Alzheimers for a few years.