Jake Lilley

Fast Facts

Sport: Sailing
Event: Finn
Olympic History: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Hyeres World Cup winner, 5th at 2019 Finn Gold Cup
Coach: Rafa Trujillo
Club: Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron
Year Born: 1993
State Born: Queensland

About Jake

Jake Lilley began sailing at the age of 14 with the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, a club he still belongs to today.

As a youngster, Lilley was originally a swimmer but found he was more at home on the deck of a boat than in the water himself.

Spurred on by watching the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as a seven-year-old, Lilley had dreams of representing Australia. 

Sailing through the ranks, he became a Juniour World and European Champion and won multiple Australian Championships.

The Brisbane local achieved his Olympic dream as a 23-year old, making his Olympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games, in the Finn class. 

Lilley, who had worked his way up to third place during the regatta, had a tough final day of the preliminary series, just scraping through to the medal race. He finished an admirable fifth place in the final race, and had a final overall result of eighth.

The youngest ever Australian National Championships winner in his class, he secured Australia a quota spot in the Finn Class for the Rio Games at the 2014 World Championships in Santander, Spain.

He was Australia’s sole competitor in the Finn class at the Rio Test Event in 2015, where he finished in eighth place.

In 2019, Lilley claimed his fifth Finn Gold Cup (World Championship) and qualified Australia a position in the Finn class at Tokyo 2020.

In 2020, he also came first in Sail Sydney, Sail Melbourne and third in the Etchells Australian Championship Royal Brighton.

Selected for Tokyo, his second Olympics, Jake Lilley’s preparation was not ideal when six weeks before the Games, he torn his meniscus in a training mishap and spent four weeks in a straight leg cast with limited mobility. It was an achievement just to make it to the start line for Lilley.

He made the medal race in the Finn class, where he placed an excellent third, closing his campaign placing seventh.