David Wilkins won a silver medal for Ireland in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games alongside crew James Wilkinson, the first Olympic sailing medal for Ireland.

Wilkins represented Ireland at five Olympic Games between 1972 and 1992, becoming the first Irish athlete to achieve that milestone.

Wilkins was born in Malahide, County Dublin and began sailing as a teenager. He went on to compete internationally for over two decades.

Up until 1980 just 21 men had represented Ireland in Olympic sailing (women-only events were not introduced until 1988) so the silver medal won by David Wilkins and James Wilkinson in the Flying Dutchman class proved a pivotal moment for our island nation.

Wilkins only joined forces with Wilkinson (from Howth) eight months beforehand, though they had crewed together while students at Trinity College.

Sailing at the 1980 Games was held in Tallinn, Estonia (1,500km from Moscow) and while they didn’t win any of their seven races they were runners-up in four. It was neck-and-neck between them and the top Spaniards until they overtook them in the penultimate race but that left them virtually guaranteed of silver before the final.

“Because of that it was a relatively stress-free final race and the surge of excitement we both felt when we crossed the finishing line was overwhelming,” Wilkins said afterwards.