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Kiteboardings Olympic Ambassadors
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record Quote
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| Marcus "Flash" Austin
United States of America
Professional Kiteboarder
Kiteboarding Legend
"Kiteboarding is a very egalitarian sport - it's a sport where participants from countries of all economic levels have a better chance to achieve their dreams due to the nominal cost of entry. Kiteboarding fits the spirit of what the Olympics were created to achieve." |
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Kristin Boese
Germany
Professional Kiteboarder
Guiness Book Record Holder and 9-time kiteboarding world champion
"I believe that kiteboarding would be the perfect addition to the Olympic Sailboat classes. It is spectacular, transports a young and dynamic image and offers huge potential as a media and spectator sport. Through its beauty kiteboarding has the power to reach out to millions of people around the world and inspire them - a message that I am more than happy to support." |
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Sir Richard Branson
Great Britain
Chairman of Virgin Group
Millennium Icon
Knighted in 1999 for "Services to Entrepeneurship" “Kiteboarding is a fun and spectacular sport that I think would make a tremendously exciting addition to the Olympic Games” |
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record Quote
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| Steph Bridge
Great Britain
Proprietor of watersports business 3-time KiteRacing World Champion
"Kiteboarding is so visual, exciting to watch and very attractive to young people growing up. It can be done all over the world and brings youth, action, colour and popularity back to the sailing disciplines. The public can watch it and be able to follow the race easily. Equipment is easy to move over the world to events and all countries have a good kitesurf network so entries will be strong." |
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| NameNationality
Profession
Track Record
Quote
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| Michael Gebhardt
United States of America
Elite Athlete Coaching and Consulting
2-time Olympic Medalist
"Kitesurfing, the newest discipline of modern high performance sailing, is perfectly positioned to launch the future of Olympic Sailing into the 21st century.
Kitesurfing offers incredible planning speeds in 5 to 35 knots of wind. Extremely popular with the youth and media of the world, this modern high flying and cutting edge sailing discipline can showcase course racing, slalom racing, and speed competitions right off of any beach, making it the perfect spectator friendly visual feast for Olympic TV.
The future is here and now. Kitesurfing is the future of Olympic sailing" |
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
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| Vitali & Wladimir Klitschko
Ukraine Professional Boxers
Undisputed World Heavyweight Boxing Champions Olympic Gold Medalist
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Ben McNabb
Canadian
Lawyer
Member of Sports Lawyers Association "The future of Olympic Sailing rests with Kiteboarding. It's fast, exciting and visually stunning. It brings a new life to sailing that is capable of capturing the youth audiences. A debut in Rio de Janerio with the ocean as its stage and the beach as its stadium is perfectly suited and highly desirable for both fans and media alike.
Kiteboarding at the Olympics is inevitable, and our goal is to see it to fruition at the 2016 games."
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Gisela Pulido
Spanish
Professional Kiteboarder
7 time kiteboarding freestyle world champion
"Kiteboarding is a sailing class very accessible economically to everyone. It has representations in almost all the countries of the world. The sport is spectacular, visually attractive and really fun. It will suppose something refreshing for the Olympic Games."
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Bruno Sroka
France
Professional Kiteboarder
Course Racing World Ranking Leader IKA / PKRA / KTE since 2008
First to round Cap Horn with a Kite. Ambassador for peace when crossing Egypt, Israel and Jordania-
"Over the past 10 years, kiteboarding overgrew most other water sports and became one of the leading sports in the world. This sport is accessible for everybody, dynamic and very spectacular. Kiteboarding is a mix of all the attractive sports like windsurfing, wakeboarding, sailing, paragliding and all new innovations came along with this sport. For that reason, I want to help bring kiteboarding in one of the most important competitions of the world : the Olympic Games. Like Pierre de Courbertin said in 1896 : « stronger, higher, faster » : this is the foremost definition of the Olympics Games."
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| NameNationality
Profession Track Record
Quote
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| Bill Tai
United States of America
Venture Capitalist and Sponsored Athlete Funded 40+ tech start ups since 1991; more than a dozen became publicly listed companies on NASDAQ "Having started as a sailor, progressing over time to windsurfing and ultimately kiteboarding, it's clear that kiteboarding is expanding the base of participants in wind sports overall and stimulating innovation throughout. The Olympics would be a great showcase to highlight wind sports in general, particularly to future generations." |
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| NameNationality
Profession
Track Record Quote
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| Ilya Vinokurov
Russia
Organization of Festivals and Competitions, building of professional teams
President of Russian Kiteboarding
"Kiteboarding is the most accessible and democratic sport compared to other sailing disciplines. Everyday it attracts new young and dynamic people from different social classes. I believe Kiteboarding will refresh the Olympic Sailing Competiton significantly, making them more spectacular, impressive and emotional." |
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