Peter Gray competed in the men's Flying Dutchman class at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games alongside Johnny Hooper, finishing 10th of 31 boats and making history on 1 September 1960 as one of the first Irish yachtsmen to win a race in Olympic competition.
A member of the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire and an employee of the Ulster Bank where Frank Lemass was a director - whose sailing enthusiasm secured Gray a generous period of leave to compete - Gray and Hooper had finished third at the 1959 World Championships in the 505 class.
Their campaign was largely family-funded with some support from the IDRA, which used profits from Ireland's first boat show at Busáras to help fund the Olympic campaign. Gray drove overland to Rome with the yacht tethered to the roof of Hooper's father's VW Beetle, competing in regattas in England, Holland and Germany along the way.
Gray became the Honorary Treasurer of the Olympic Council of Ireland in 1973 and later served as team manager of the Irish sailing team at the Seoul 1988 Olympics.
Sailing
