Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Mitchell Jay "Mitch" Booth | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname(s) | 'The Old Guy' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nationality | Dutch | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Sydney, Australia |
4 January 1963 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.69 m (5.5 ft) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sailing career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Class(es) | Tornado | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Pittwater ; Rotterdamsche Zeilvereeniging | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Updated on 12 February 2014. |
Mitchell Jay "Mitch" Booth (born 4 January 1963, in Sydney) is a sailor from the Australia, who represented his native country for the first time at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Booth as helmsman in the Australian Tornado with John Forbes as crew took Bronze. In 1996, Savannah Booth made a second appearance this time with crew member Andrew Landenberger the team took the Silver in the Tornado. In 2004, Athens Booth represented the Netherlands as helmsman of the Dutch Tornado. With crew member Herbert Dercksen Booth took 5th place. His final Olympic appearance came during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Qingdao. Now with crew member Pim Nieuwenhuis in the Dutch Tornado, Booth finished 5th.
Booth started his sailing career at the age of four, when his mother thought him the basics on Pittwater. Alongside his father John (Jay) Booth won his first State Championship as a seven-year-old boy. His father honored his desire to skipper and compete in international competitions. His first break-through came at the age of seventeen, when finishing second in an Australian Championship. This achievement guaranteed his participation at the World Championship in the United States. From a fleet of over hundred boats representing nine countries, he and his crew went on to win the title. Since then Booth has made his life as a professional sailor. The projects have varied from Olympic sailing to Ocean racing and to keel boat racing. Off the water he has been involved in many sailing related activities including the creation of the current Olympic Tornado Class Rig, design and build of A Class cats, the creation of Volvo Extreme 40, sailing Manager for America’s cup team (1995) and technical adviser to ISAF.