Torben Grael is the Brazilian with the highest number of Olympic medals. He holds the highest number of Olympic medals in sailing, although Paul Elvstrom has four gold medals (winning them consecutively from 1948 through 1960), and is Grael's own role-model. He has also participated in the America’s Cup as well as the Volvo Ocean Race. Adding to this he has earned first places in many World, South American and Brazilian championships in several categories and is 35 times a Brazilian Champion in sailing.

It is Torben’s Danish heritage that brought him into sailing. At the age of five he was taken sailing by his Danish grandfather on the sailboat Ailen, the boat from the 6 meter class which was used by the silver medal winning 1912 Summer Olympics Danish sailing team. Once he moved to Niterói, outside the city of Rio de Janeiro, he started sailing with his brother, Lars Grael, also an Olympic medal winner, on the Bay of Guanabara. Torben soon came to earn the nickname “Turbine” for his fame in racing sailboats, collecting five Olympic medals, four of them in the Star class.

It is not only his brother and grandfather he can thank for his sailing skills, they run within the Grael family, his uncles were the first Brazilians to win sailing World Championships. One of them was also his first coach, in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, when he got his first golden medal.

He won his second gold medal in Athens, dominating a very competitive Star fleet. “Winning a gold medal is always a peak in your career. The one in Athens was very special, being the second one and making me the best Olympic athlete in Brazil, and being in Athens with all the atmosphere of where the Games started. It was really very special,” says Torben who ranks this as one of his biggest moments in sailing.

On top of his Olympic accomplishments, Torben has taken part in a number of international sailing competitions, having done three America’s Cups, including the 2007 event as tactician aboard Luna Rossa Challenge, and one Volvo Ocean Race, the latest as skipper of the Brasil 1 team.

As a perfectionist and goal oriented person with everything he takes on, the question is how Torben finds the motivation to continue to perform at the top year after year? “The first thing is to have fun for sure. I enjoy sailing, I think it's a wonderful sport. Then, of course, I'm a competitive person so I always want to do better and improve everything I do. In sailing it's the same thing.” Torben explains.

Compared to the Olympic classes, the Volvo Ocean Race is a different type of sailing, and Torben says: “Something that I enjoy a lot is sailing at high speeds and I think the Volvo Ocean Race is very good for that. The Southern Ocean type legs are very different and a big motivation for me to do the race.”

Having won world and Olympic titles, the only thing really missing now is first places at Volvo Ocean Race and America's Cup. Having finished third on Brasil 1 his intentions are now, as skipper of Ericsson’s international team, to reach yet another of his goals.