Their confirmation by the British Olympic Association brings about a full complement of 16 sailors to compete for Britain across all ten events on the Olympic sailing programme at Weymouth and Portland this summer.

Morrison and Rhodes have been sailing together since 2001 and have both World and European titles to their names.

They will be competing at their second Games, having made their Olympic debut in Beijing four years ago.

Young (pictured below), 24, will make her Olympic debut this summer after demonstrating great progression at senior level since winning a bronze medal at the ISAF (International Sailing Federation) World Youth Championships in 2005.

British sailors have established a proud tradition of excellence in Olympic competition, having won 50 medals – including 25 gold, the most of any nation – since sailing made its debut in the Olympic Games in 1900 in Paris.

The addition of the sailors brings the total number of athletes officially selected to Team GB for London 2012 to 79 across six disciplines: athletics – marathon, boxing, canoe slalom, sailing, swimming and synchronised swimming.

Sailing team leader Stephen Park said: "Stevie and Ben are obviously past Olympians and they have been World Championship medallists. 

"They were unfortunate at the World Championship in Perth that through injury they weren't able to take part.


"They had a great Sail for Gold Regatta on the Olympic field last summer where they medalled, and they just missed out on the medals at the Olympic Test Event.

"We're confident that with the experience they've got and a home venue track record, they'll be able to pull it all together and really deliver when it counts.

"With Ali Young in the Laser Radial it was a tough decision, as they all are, but as she's been the more consistent of our performers across the trials events.

"We've now got 13 teams in the 13 events – Olympic and Paralympic – and as we go into the Games, I can honestly say hand on heart that we've got people who've got potential to medal in every single event – we've never had that before.

"That doesn't mean to say that we'll medal in every event – far from it – but in terms of preparing a good team the sailors have done an incredible job to date."

Morrison commented: "We're really happy of course – it's a massive honour to be selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games, and even more so for a home Olympics.

"It does feel very different this time to four years ago – we were one of the first teams to be selected for Beijing and back then we felt like we kicked the doors down and left the selectors no scope to do anything other than select us.  

"That led to a lot of expectation going into the Games and probably pressure on ourselves that we didn't realise at the time was there.

"This time around the things have been very different – the trials have been a lot closer but we always believed that we were the best team to deliver gold in Weymouth in 2012 and our track record in the venue over recent years supports that."

Rhodes said: "We're massively psyched – it's a privilege to be selected for Team GB and for us it's a huge chance to try and put right the mistakes we made in China. 

"That's what we've been motivated by for the past four years – we don't want to go through that disappointment again."

Alison Young added: "I was pretty stunned when I found out, but it's pretty cool to be selected for an Olympic Games, and for a home Games it's even more exciting."

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