Sean Waddilove
Sailing
BIOGRAPHY
Seán Waddilove represented Ireland alongside Robert Dickson in the men’s 49er skiff at two Olympic Games, finishing 13th at Tokyo 2020 and 4th at Paris 2024 – one of the most heartbreaking near-misses in Irish sporting history.
At Paris, sailing in Marseille, the pair held second place overall for the entire regatta week before a premature start in the medal race forced them to restart, leaving them a mountain to climb and ultimately dropping from silver to 4th. Waddilove is from Skerries, Co. Dublin and is a member of Skerries Sailing Club.
He began sailing aged seven or eight when his parents booked him onto a Taste of Sailing course at the club, and has represented Ireland internationally since the age of 12. He and Dickson first stepped into a 49er together at Howth Yacht Club in 2015 and won the U23 World Championship in Marseille in 2018. At Tokyo they won two races in the series but were twice disqualified due to a technical issue with the trapeze harness weight, which somewhat overshadowed an otherwise impressive debut. Waddilove put his studies at TU Dublin on hold after Tokyo to focus full-time on sailing given the extensive travel demands of the circuit.
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