Micky Beckett has had to bide his time.

Despite being a consistent medal winner at European and World level since his first silver in 2018, Beckett missed out on the Tokyo Olympics when fellow British sailor Elliot Hanson pipped him to a qualifying spot at the 2020 ICLA European Championships in Gdansk.

With Hanson taking gold, and Beckett silver, suddenly there was an Olympic-sized gap in his calendar.

“The TV stuff came about entirely through chance,” Becket recalls.

“I think someone dropped out and they needed an expert to come and explain the finer points of sailing because when you’re a production team covering a sporting event, you need to know the sport inside out.”

Valuable Experience

“I helped viewers learn about the finer points of the rules, what happens when there are delays, rules, protests, all of that stuff,” Beckett adds.

“It was an immense privilege. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. To go and sit in the gallery and get the best view of the Olympics, watching every single camera all the time and try and produce a good product that showcases sailing.”

That experience proved to be a bit of a turning point for Beckett in his sailing career.

“It was very interesting getting a close view of what everybody else who I am usually competing against is going through,” he says.

“They are under the ultimate pressure, and you can see and hear exactly what everyone is doing all the time. It gave me really good insight into all 10 sailing classes.”

Princess Sofia Success

Beckett sails in the ILCA 7 class, previously known as Laser class. Laser is where British sailing’s most famous competitor, Ben Ainslie, won his first Olympic gold. Ainslie is not the only British success in the ILCA 7 class, with Paul Goodison winning Olympic gold at Beijing, and Nick Thompson a back-to-back world champion.

Beckett has been in excellent form since Tokyo, cementing his place as one of the top sailors in his class in the world.

After silver at Gdansk in 2020, he went one better with European gold in Varna, Bulgaria, a year later. But it was 2022 that proved to be a break-out year for Beckett.

Another silver in the European Championships was followed by a first title against the world’s best at the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta in Mallorca.

Not content with one Princess Sofia victory, Beckett has now won the last three titles at the prestigious race, beating Olympic gold medallist Matt Wearn in the process.

A Long Time To Prepare

2023 returned his first World Championship medal: silver, just pipped by the Australian Wearn, and automatic qualification to the Olympics, a whole year in advance.

“It was a massive weight off my shoulders,” Beckett says.

“Sailing is a sport that benefits skills and experience as well as just raw fitness. That means they’re happy to pick so far out from the event. Obviously, the standard is always very, very high.

“You don’t just have to be the best in the UK you have to be around the top eight in the world as well. So, to meet that kind of criteria is really encouraging.

“I found out I was selected in September, so, it’s been nearly a whole year of knowing that I’ve been given this opportunity.”

‘I’m not the man to beat’

If there was any moment that Beckett thought about resting on his success between September 2023 and Paris 2024, then the results certainly don’t show it.

Bronze at the World Championships in Adelaide was followed by that third Princess Sofia win, and victory at the French Olympic week tester event has given the Solva-born sailor confidence he can medal at Paris.

“It’s nice and reassuring,” Beckett says of his form.

“But it does also set expectations. There’s no way of escaping it but I think the most valuable thing I take from those events is the experience of racing.

“You can definitely see the pressure that everyone is under and it’s quite nice to still be able to perform whilst that’s all happening.”

Does Beckett feel like he has become a bit of a target now his good form has propelled him to third in the World Sailing rankings?

“Well, I’m not the defending World and Olympic champion!” he jokes.

“I’d say I’m in the group of five behind Matt [Wearn]. I’m not the man to beat.”

A First Olympics

With such an experienced set of racers, Beckett will be one of few who are at their first Olympics this summer and has a simple mantra for race days.

“Fake it till you make it!” Beckett reveals.

“I do still get nervous, but I’ve learnt that just because you’re nervous, it does not mean that you are about to go and put in a bad performance.

“It means that your body and mind is recognising that today is important, and you need to go and rise to the challenge and you need to focus on the nuts and bolts of the event and not worry about the outcome.

“It’s very easy to think ‘if I do well today then XYZ is going to happen’ and you end up getting carried away with things that are not important. What’s important is understanding your craft and going out and trying to make a decent fist of the day and not getting too upset if it turns out that it is a bad day because that won’t help your decision making.

“It’s just trying to stay fairly calm and level. I was only partly joking when I said, ‘fake it till you make it’, but there is an element of truth in that.”

Breaking Down The Door

For Beckett, that Olympic title will be the culmination of three years of knocking on the door of sailing’s top table, and he knows exactly how to break the door down in Paris.

“Sailing is about brutal averages,” he says.

“Each race has 10 races, and you count nine, meaning your worst race does not matter. You get one point for coming first in a race and more the further down the pack you place, so the winner will have the least points throughout the nine races.

“To win gold, you usually have to average around third, which is so tough. It means that two bad races, near the start, means you’ve got to be flawless for the rest.

“It sounds counterintuitive, but winning is not about getting from second to first in one race and showing how good you are on that day, it’s about being very diligent, consistent and staying in the top five or ten, even on an off day.”

‘I’ll be doing everything I can to get a gold medal’

With that in mind, what does success look like for Beckett at Paris?

“Certainly, a medal,” he says.

“Team GB haven’t won a medal in my class since 2008, and that’s quite a while so it’d be really nice to amend that. I’ve had some success winning against all the same people who’ll be in Paris in the last couple of years and I do believe I can get the gold.

“That would be awesome. I am conscious though that if I go into the competition thinking of a medal, it may be a bit of a recipe for trouble in terms of putting pressure on myself.

“I’m a big believer in ‘if you can do something than you should do everything you can to do it’, and I’ll be doing everything I can to get a gold medal.”

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