Michael Blackburn
Encyclopedia
Michael Blackburn (born 27 May 1970 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Olympic medallist and sailor. He is well known for his crossing of Bass Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...

 in a Laser dinghy
Laser (dinghy)
The International Laser Class sailboat, also called Laser Standard and the Laser One is a popular one-design class of small sailing dinghy. According the Laser Class Rules the boat may be sailed by either one or two people, though it is rarely sailed by two. The design, by Bruce Kirby, emphasizes...

. He did so on 9 March 2005 in a record time (for sailing) of 13 hours 1 minute.

In March 2005, he was ranked 3rd in the world in the Laser, behind Robert Scheidt
Robert Scheidt
Robert Scheidt is a renowned Brazilian sailor, having won two gold medals and two silver medals from four Olympic Games...

 of Brazil and Paul Goodison
Paul Goodison
Paul Martin Goodison MBE is an English sailor.In March 2005, he was ranked 2nd in the world in the Laser, behind Robert Scheidt of Brazil, and ahead of Michael Blackburn of Australia and Mark Mendelblatt of the United States.He won the gold medal in the Men's Laser class at the 2008 Summer Olympics...

 of Great Britain, and ahead of Mark Mendelblatt
Mark Mendelblatt
Mark Mendelblatt is an American yachtsman. He primarily sails the Laser, a one-design class of small single-handed sailing dinghy...

 of the United States.

Blackburn also won the 2006 Laser World Championships in Jeju, Korea. He placed 9th at the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

 in Athens, Greece. He also received a Bronze Medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Outside of sailing, Blackburn has a PhD in Human Movement Studies. He is also a founder of SportsMindSkills.com which sells downloadable sports psychology products.

External links

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