Wilkinson / Dawson

Micah Wilkinson was born February 6, 1996, and grew up in Cambridge, New Zealand, learning to sail at six on Lake Kārāpiro. He won gold at the 2013 Youth Worlds in the SL16 catamaran and represented NZ on a Youth America's Cup team in 2017. He began racing the Nacra 17 with Erica Dawson in 2019. After a difficult Tokyo 2020 campaign (Dawson broke her leg in training; they finished 12th), the pair rebuilt to European silver in 2022 and Paris 2024 Olympic bronze — New Zealand's first Olympic catamaran medal since 1988.

Erica Dawson was born July 24, 1994, in Auckland, sailing out of Murrays Bay Sailing Club, the first girl to win the club's Starling class national title. She raced the 420 at the 2012 Youth Worlds (5th) and the 49erFX from 2014 before switching to the Nacra 17 in 2019 with Micah Wilkinson. Their Tokyo 2020 campaign was disrupted when Dawson fractured her fibula in training in mid-2021 (12th place result). They rebuilt over the next cycle — European silver in 2022 — before a career-defining Paris 2024 performance: racing in barely five knots of wind and needing to finish the medal race inside a tight time limit, they took bronze.