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BEN AINSLIE

"Ben Ainslie can probably go on and get the most Olympic medals in sailing history," Torben Grael said last year.

His authority should not be questioned. It was, after all, the Brazilian who set the current benchmark of five.

Whether Ainslie, a 31-year-old with two gold medals and one silver from his past three trips to the Olympics, has time to rewrite the record books is one question.

Whether he has the inclination is another.

The Macclesfield-born and Lymington-based winner of seven world titles has made little secret of his love of big yachts, the kind that cost millions and earn almost as much for the skippers that sail them.

He has already made the step, acting as reserve helmsman to Dean Barker aboard Emirates Team New Zealand in the 32nd America's Cup last year.

Last autumn he signed as skipper for Team Origin, the British entrant in the 33rd edition.

In most cases that would end an Olympic career.

"To sail in the Olympics, it's not a part-time job," explained Stephen Park, Skandia TeamGBR's sailing coach.

"It takes non-stop work throughout the whole four-year Olympic cycle to keep up with the competition or to stay ahead of the game.

"Not many people could juggle a full-on campaign like the America's Cup and then come back into the small boats and pick up where they left off years earlier."

Ainslie is not like many people.

When his three-year commitment to Team New Zealand ended at the end of the America's Cup final last July, 13 months remained until the games.

In that time he had to reacquaint himself with the notoriously tricky Finn class in which he won gold at Athens - his silver in Atlanta and gold in Sydney were won in the Laser class - and outsmart the well practised champions that had taken his place.

"I'd hardly sailed the Finn in this cycle, to be honest," Ainslie said.

"I sailed a lot of the competitions, but not the testing, the really important day-to-day stuff."

It did not show.

His first race back on the Finn circuit - coming a full ten months after his previous Finn race - was the Olympic test event in August 2007.

He destroyed the world-class field and came first.

In the winter he was then ordered to take on compatriot Ed Wright in a race-off for a place in the British squad.

The reason, other than Ainslie's suspected ring rust, was that he had committed to sailing for Team Origin in an America's Cup scheduled for 2009 and selectors were concerned about the time he would dedicate to such a full-on campaign.

Furthermore, Wright was then ranked third in the world and had claimed the 2006 European title in Ainslie's absence.

It did not matter.

First, a legal wrangle forced the postponement of the 33rd America's Cup, meaning Ainslie would be free until at least 2010.

Then, in the pair's race-off at the world-class Sydney International Regatta in December, Wright came fifth overall while Ainslie won six of eight races to take the title. He was picked.

If people had any doubts about Ainslie's credentials as arguably the best dinghy sailor of his generation, he dispelled them in January.

Racing in Melbourne, he won the Finn class world championship for a fifth time in seven years.

Added to his Laser world title wins as a prodigious youngster in 1998 and 1999 - he also won four Laser European titles - it amounted to seven world crowns.

A fourth European Finn title win in May not only ensured that he was in possession of all the major titles at once, but also that each of the nine competitions he had entered since the end of the America's Cup had ended with a first place finish.

It is why Grael, who has won two gold medals, two bronze and a silver, can see Ainslie usurping his haul.

It is why Park, the coach of arguably the most talented British sailing squad in history, sees Ainslie as a man capable of sporting miracles.

Whether the man himself chooses to keep the ultra-fit and light physique needed to sail such small boats until the 2016 games is unknown.

His alternative is to move to the yacht circuit full-time and earn the fortunes his talent deserves.

After all, indications from the last America's Cup suggest that he is already rated among the very elite helmsmen in the world.

Then again, another alternative is that he defies logic and conventional wisdom by sharing his time between two different but equally demanding worlds - and wins in both.

He has proven that it can be done.

For more on the Olympics see today's Daily Echo.

7:30am Thursday 10th July 2008

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