Eilidh McIntyre: Olympic gold medallist retires from sailing ahead of Paris 2024 at age of 28

Olympic gold medallist Eilidh McIntyre has announced her retirement from sailing. McIntyre, 28, won gold in the women's 470 event at Tokyo 2020, alongside team-mate Hannah Mills. Ad Mills retired shortly after Tokyo, but McIntyre had planned to continue and go again at Paris 2024 until “losing belief in the cause”.

The Ocean RaceHerrmann returns to skipper Team Malizia for Leg 3 of The Ocean Race after burn5 HOURS AGO She told Team GB: “I want to go to another Olympics and I want to challenge for another medal, but I only want to go if I’m going to be battling it out for gold. “I don’t want to go and be in that final race of the Olympics absolutely nowhere near to getting a medal. These things happen at the Olympics and you can’t control it.

«But I, in my heart, just don’t believe that in the time frame available to us that we are going to be in a situation to battle it out for a medal and for a gold. »I just lost belief in that cause. I don’t want to go to the Games for the t-shirt.” McIntyre, who was made an MBE last year, has been training with new team-mate Martin Wrigley after it was announced the 470 events at the next Olympics would be mixed-gender.

However, McIntyre says the quicker turnaround, after the last Olympics were delayed by a year, made preparing for Paris more difficult. Herrmann returns to skipper Team Malizia for Leg 3 of Ocean Race Meilhat delighted to add Davies to Biotherm ranks “A lot of people have said ‘it’s only three years, you can make that’. That actually makes it harder,” she said.