‘The need for speed’…Emma Wilson OLY

For not only is the 23-year-old from Weymouth one of the fastest IQFoil windsurfers in the UK, but she hopes to prove she is the best in the world.

IQFoil is a windsurfing class selected by World Sailing to replace the RS:X for the 2024 Summer Olympics at Paris and Emma – who already holds an Olympic bronze medal earned at Tokyo in 2021 – is competing for Great Britain.

The discipline has similarities to regular windsurfing however a notable difference is that sailors are now flying on a hydrofoil and all use exactly the same equipment so it is all down to the sailors.

And Emma’s skill at using that sail to take her board to speeds of up to 30 knots makes her one of the fastest humans to cross the water.

In fact, she’s only marginally slower than HMS Sutherland, the fastest ship in the Royal Navy’s fleet with a top speed of 34 knots … and in the coming months she will be looking to lessen that gap in the hope of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.

Always into sport, Emma took up windsurfing when she was seven – not surprisingly as her mum, Penny, competed in the sport twice at the Olympics, in 1992 and 1996 – and when she was old enough to watch the Olympics on tv she was hooked.

In 2011 she won the Junior World Championships and from there she went on to become three times Youth World champion.

Then, in October 2019, after a tough, two-year selection process she was selected to be the British female windsurfing representative at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

In 2021 she won an Olympic Bronze medal, becoming only the second female in Great Britain to have won a windsurfing medal.

And now she has another medal in her sights.

If she makes it to Paris, she will be the sole representative as only one person from each country can go. And competitors from another 28 countries stand between her and victory… so what are her chances?.

“They’re good,” says Emma, who is passionate about helping young people use sport as a force for good in their lives and when not spending 18 hours a week training, visits schools to inspire the next generation.

“I think I can do it – in fact I’m pretty sure I can. Each day I wake up and give training 100% to hopefully stand on the top step of the Olympic podium.

“Nothing is guaranteed but one thing is for sure; I will give it everything I’ve got.”