From sleeping in a van to reaching the Olympics

Sam Sills will take part in his first Olympic Games next month

How far would you go to fulfil your dream of competing in the Olympic Games?

For Team GB windsurfer Sam Sills it involved spending all his savings and living in a van at waterside car parks as he tried to force his way back into the British team.

The 31-year-old spent everything he had on the equipment for the new iQFOiL windsurfing class as he juggled trying to work as a yacht designer and his dream of being an elite athlete.

"It's quite an expensive sport," he explains to BBC Radio Cornwall.

"To buy the equipment brand new it's probably £9,000 - it's very expensive, and I probably had £10,000 to £12,000 saved in my bank account at the time.

"I decided 'I'm going to go for this and go to the World Championships and see if I can get on the British team'.

"It was pretty stressful. I ended up sleeping in my van in the car park of this lake in the mountains of Switzerland and I managed to get in the top 12 at that event, which put me on a trajectory to be in the team."

After being a junior world champion Sills failed to make the Great Britain team for the 2016 and 2020 Olympics on the old RS:X boards.

But the introduction of the iQFOiL class for Paris 2024 gave him a chance to have another try at reaching the biggest event in sport.

The iQFOiL boards use hydrofoils attached to the bottom to lift it out of the water, with speeds of up to 30 knots - about 35mph.

So in 2019 he put a bed in the back of his van, and when Covid-19 struck in 2020 and his work began to dry up he felt he had to go all-out to making Team GB.

"The best option I had was to try and get in the British sailing team I thought at that point," said Sills, who grew up in Launceston and learned to sail and windsurf on lakes and beaches in South West England.

"I was living in the car park of Portland Harbour in the van in the spring and summer of that year, which was pretty rough to be honest, and it was make or break.

"I remember thinking 'This is it. I can still sell this if it all goes wrong and I'll lose a little bit, but if it goes well then it could be amazing' - and I just went for it.

"I remember the day I actually got the equipment, which is probably about three weeks before the World Championships. I was shaking with nerves.

"I almost gave it back in that moment, I remember thinking to myself 'What am I doing? This is so irresponsible and I shouldn't really be doing this, but I've done it now, so let's just make it work' - and it paid off."

Sam Sills has been able to give up his day job and focus full-time on the Olympic Games

It certainly did pay off. Sills came seventh in the World Championships in 2020 and went on to qualify for Great Britain.

He was able to secure lottery funding in 2021, allowing him to move out of the van and take advantage of British Sailing's coaching and support network.

But even then it still took time for Sills to truly believe he could achieve his Olympic dream.

"I didn't believe I would go to the Olympics probably until 2023 in February where I started winning events internationally, and my other British competitors were placed in the thirties," he said.

"I was like 'Right, I can do this, I really can', and that was when the penny dropped and I really believed it was going to happen."

He was selected for the Olympics last year, allowing him time to train and focus on winning a medal.

The sailing events will take place in the Mediterranean city of Marseille and Sills has a chance of a medal having consistently finished in the top 10 at world and European championships.

"I think it'll be amazing," he says of the Olympics.

"People tell you about it - 'it's the biggest thing you'll ever do' - and it's just nuts what's going on around you off the water.

"But on the water you've still got the same wind, still got the same waters, still got the same equipment - that's all the same.

"There's going to be lots of spectators, lots going on and a lot of noise to deal with, with the Olympics, with the media, with everything that's going on.

"So I'm expecting it to be a lot to deal with, but we'll just try and keep it simple and enjoy it."