Vote for Ben Ainslie 

Vote Ben as this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Help to bring the curtain down on Ben’s record breaking 2012 in perfect style by voting for him to be named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2012.  

Voting will take place by phone only during the live show on Sunday 16th December . The number to call to vote for Ainslie will be revealed on the programme, so make sure you tune in on the night!  

In a year that has seen Ainslie catapulted from true sailing great to genuine British sporting hero, the award would be fitting recognition of his decade-long domination of his sport.   Make 2012 the year in which a sailor receives this prestigious BBC accolade and put the sport of sailing on the map.  

Ben Ainslie - A true British sporting hero  

• A sporting legend that has dominated the sport for 16 years through sheer determination, immense skill, and enduring commitment.    
• Ben claimed his fourth consecutive Olympic gold medal and fifth Olympic medal in total with emphatic Finn class victory at the London 2012, overtaking Denmark's Paul Elvstrom as the world's most successful Olympic sailor of all time. ·        
• Winner of the 2012 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year for a record breaking fourth time
• Ainslie was the first to run with the Olympic torch on home soil as it travelled across Great Britain and was Team GB’s flag bearer for the London 2012 Olympic Closing Ceremony
• He became Britain’s youngest ever Olympic sailing medallist when on his Games debut at Atlanta 1996 Ainslie won Laser class silver aged just 19.    
• Gained his first Olympic gold at Sydney 2000, in the Finn class where he began his complete domination of the heavy weight dinghy class by taking gold at Athens 2004.  
• The images of Ainslie mastering the elements to claim a stunning medal race victory and wrap up his third consecutive Olympic title in Qingdao 2008 will endure forever. 
• In 2008 Ainslie surpassed British Olympic sailor Rodney Pattisson’s previous best British Olympic sailing medal haul of two gold’s, one silver.
• ISAF 2010 World Match Racing Tour Champion
• 10-time world champion and  nine time European champion in the Finn Class
• Five time British Yachtsmen of the Year