How America’s Cup winner Jimmy Spithill overcame bullies
Jimmy Spithill was just 12 years old when a doctor told him his dreams of becoming an athlete would never come to fruition.
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Born with a right leg five centimeters (2 inches) shorter than his left and a right foot that was three sizes smaller than his other foot, Spithill walked with a limp even after surgery.
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Bullied at high school, the Australian took up boxing in his teens -- something he credits for keeping him on the straight and narrow.
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But it was sailing where he made his name, becoming the then-youngest skipper to win the America's Cup, with the BMW Oracle team in 2010.
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Three years later, Spithill played a decisive role in perhaps the greatest sporting comeback of all time.
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Skippering Oracle Team USA in the 34th America's Cup, Spithill and his crew were 8-1 down to Emirates Team New Zealand after nine races and staring down the barrel of defeat.
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An incredible fightback leveled the scores at 8-8 to force a decisive race, won by Oracle Team USA by 44 seconds.
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But Spithill's win streak in the oldest international competition in sport ended at this year's America's Cup in Bermuda's Great Sound, where Oracle Team USA were beaten 7-1 by Emirates Team New Zealand and its 26-year-old skipper, Peter Burling.