birth_place medaltemplates birth_date article_title name
santa cruz , madeira men 's sailing november 2 , 1971 joão rodrigues -lrb- sailor -rrb-
 joão rodrigues
joão rodrigues -lrb- sailor -rrb-

joão filipe gaspar rodrigues , better known as joão rodrigues , -lrb- born november 1 , 1971 in santa cruz , madeira -rrb- is a portuguese windsurfer from funchal , madeira .
he started sailing at nine years-old and racing competitively at the age of eleven .
in 1995 , he won his first major title at the mistral world championships , in port elizabeth , south africa ; this year , he also graduated from a five-year course in engineering .
in the following two years , rodrigues won the european championships in the mistral class .
in may 2008 , he added a third european title to his record , this time in the class .
he has participated in every summer olympic games since the 1992 summer olympics and has already qualified for what will be his fifth consecutive olympiad .
joão rodrigues also won silver in the masters fleet at the 2009 iwa junior , youth and masters world championships which took place at weymouth and portland sailing academy which is the venue for the windsurfing and sailing at the 2012 olympic games .
