IAN WILLIAMS
FOUR WORLD MATCH RACING TITLES AND COUNTING
26
The name Ian Williams might not conjure the household recognition of many Olympic or America’s Cup stars, but it should. Competing in his 10th season as a professional, he has four world titles under his belt in what has to be, psychologically, the toughest of sailing’s disciplines. Evenly matched boats racing head-to head: “There’s no buying your way to the top,” explains Ian. “You’ve got to go out and perform on the day against whoever is thrown at you. It’s not like a regatta where you can discard a poor result, it’s win or lose. It is a bit brutal sometimes.” Ian Williams’ sailing career could have been short-lived. Having missed out on selection for the 2000 Olympics, at the tender age of 23, he was looking forward to the 2004 event when the discipline was dropped from the Games. As Ian recalls, it was probably the lowest point of his career. However, match racing’s World Tour continued to thrive and Ian made the decision to go fully professional early in 2005, giving up a promising career as a lawyer. Did Ian ever worry he’d made the wrong decision? He laughs: “Yeah, pretty much every day!” “It’s a pretty unstable job being a professional sailor,” he explains. “We don’t make the money that some sportsmen do, so you need to have a long career to make it work. It’s a bit of a concern - what’s going to happen
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next in terms of where the sport will go and what you’re going to be doing… but I don’t regret the decision. I’m very lucky to be able to sail for a living.” Just two years later, Ian was rewarded with his first match racing world title. “That was a huge milestone. To improve enough and get to the top of the game in two years was very satisfying, and a great vindication for me, because it was a big decision to quit my job.” Proving he was no one-hit wonder, Ian won again in 2008. However, a couple of leaner years followed: “In 2009 and 2010 we had some good moments, but we never really looked like we were going to win it. You always worry that the game’s moved on and improved or you’re getting a bit old or you’ve lost your edge…” That made Ian’s win in 2011 all the more satisfying. “We came back with a new team in 2011 and really dominated, certainly the five-man boats. That was great to come back and win a lot of regattas and the tour like that.” 2012 delivered a fourth world title, and while he missed out in 2013, 2014 was looking promising with Williams leading going into the penultimate event. One of the keys to Ian’s success is undoubtedly is his team organisation. “The larger boats generally suit me for