Bill O’Hara competed in the men’s Finn class one-person dinghy at two Olympic Games – finishing 13th at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and 21st at the 1988 Seoul Games, where he held a top-ten position after four races.

From Bangor, Co. Down, O’Hara had first sailed at a regatta in Crosshaven, Co. Cork as a nine-year-old. He initially concentrated on Lasers and in 1982 finished runner-up in the European Laser Championship in Greece before switching to Finns.

At Los Angeles he was practically a full-time athlete in the 14 months before the Games, spending the final six weeks fine-tuning in Long Beach. His best result was 4th in race one. Later, team manager Michael Wallace noted that ‘a bigger selection of good-quality sails and spars would be preferable next time round’ and identified O’Hara as ‘a potential high-performer for Seoul.’

That potential was nearly realised: at Seoul, competing in the most difficult conditions in the history of Olympic sailing – a north-easterly wind never below twelve knots and on occasions exceeding thirty – O’Hara held a top-ten position after four races. A forced retirement in the final race when his main boom was broken, combined with a disqualification in race six, pushed him down to 21st place overall.

O’Hara went on to hold coaching roles for Team Ireland at the Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 Games and has coached numerous nations at Olympic Games in subsequent years.