Olympics 2008

Sailing slips under the radar of most sports fans in this country but it should come as no surprise that our island national has topped the medal table at the last two Olympics.

In fact, since Sydney in 2000, sailing has been Britain's most successful Olympic sport, which means the Team GB sailors heading to Beijing have a reputation to uphold.

All eyes will be on Ben Ainslie as he goes for a third straight Olympic gold and fourth Olympic medal (he also won silver in Atlanta) but the British team also abounds with World and European Championship medallists.

And British Olympic sailing manager Stephen Park has targeted four medals from the 18 sailors in 11 different classes competing in Beijing.

"I'm confident we've got at least eight realistic medal opportunities so a rough rule of thumb is achieving 50% of that. If we come home with four medals I'll be very pleased," Park told me.

In Ainslie, Team GB has Britain's best chance of gold across all the Olympic disciplines.

The 31-year-old has also won five Finn world titles, including four in a row from 2002-2005 before taking two years off for the America's Cup.

Added to that, Ainslie has won the last two Olympic test events in Qingdao

"Any Olympic medal is an amazing achievement, for sure, because sailing is such a funny sport," he said when I met him at a recent media gathering at the Chelsea Flower Show.

"But I'd be disappointed if I didn't win, as I would in any event, because that's why you do sport, to try to win."

Of Britain's other hopes, the Yngling trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson are also in pole position to clinch a medal of some sort in China.

The trio are double world and European champions and also won the test event in Beijing in 2007.

Ayton and Webb are also targeting a second straight gold after their Athens glory alongside Shirley Robertson, who will be reporting for the BBC in China.

"They've got a huge work ethic," said Park. "There's great leadership in their team from Sarah Ayton, massive application from Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson and great commitment from their coach Paul Brotherton.

"Only once in this Olympic campaign have they been off the podium in any international event and they're competing in seven or eight a year. So they will be going in as favourites, and if you asked any of their competitors they would say they will certainly get a medal."

So which other sailors should we be keeping a weather eye on?

Well, Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes in the high-performance 49er dinghy won the world title last year, came second in Melbourne in January and also won the 2007 test event.

Recent results have not quite been so stellar but they were hampered by a series of freak equipment failures before bouncing back with victory in Holland.

"Lot's of bizarre things went wrong but, given that the last 18 months have gone so well, it's given us added motivation and really fired us up," said Morrison.

The duo of Nick Rogers, 31, and Joe Glanfield, 28, finished one point out of bronze medal position in Sydney but won silver in Athens and are hungry to go one better in China, where they claimed silver in last year's test event.

"In Sydney we didn't really realise what we had missed out on," said Glanfield. "So given the nature of the conditions in China I think I'd struggle to come out of Beijing with a bronze and be too disappointed. But after getting silver in Athens, the goal is to win gold."

Windsurfer Nick Dempsey, 27, - married to Ayton - claimed a bronze four years ago and continues to impress, while women's windsurfer Bryony Shaw, 25, won last year's test event in Qingdao.

"They've both got very good chances," said Park. "Their light-wind performances are second to none, and actually their stronger-wind sailing is maybe not as good as it was but that's because they are optimising to a light-wind venue."

Laser sailor Paul Goodison, 30, was perhaps unfairly touted as the next Ben Ainslie but finished fourth in Athens and was so distraught he seriously considered quitting.

But he goes to Beijing with impressive credentials and has recovered from a broken wrist following a mountain bike accident over the winter.

"Paul's a very strong performer. He won both the test events in 2006 and 2007 so he's going into the games unbeaten in Chinese waters," said Park.

Of the rest of Team GB, Tornado sailors Will Howden and Leigh McMillan were fifth at last year's test event in Beijing, women's 470 duo Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark won bronze at the 2007 worlds, and Star pair Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson are world and European bronze medallists.

If it comes to the crunch, Percy also has gold medal-winning experience to draw on after clinching the Finn title in Sydney.

In China, the fickle winds and strong tides are not the main worry for Britain's medal hopes. That's part of sailing and it's the same for everyone.

The fear is that a complete absence of breeze for a prolonged spell could see races cancelled and the regatta shortened. This could mean the medals are skewed by a couple of freak results, preventing the cream coming to the top.

"For me that's not what the Olympics are about," said Park. "It should be the best prepared, most talented, hardest-working athletes winning gold medals, especially in our sport where experience counts. A gold medal won in one race is not good for the sport.

"But if we do get a reasonable number of races then I'm confident the talent will end up at the top of the list."

Should Team GB surpass the target of four medals - matching or outdoing the five won in Sydney and Athens - I suspect the manner of victory might not assume quite as much importance.