Jan-Peter Peckolt & Hannes Peckolt

Jan-Peter Peckolt was born May 4, 1981, in Mannheim. His sailing career began after a family catamaran holiday in Corsica in the early 1990s; he joined Segel-Gemeinschaft Waldsee in 1993, moving into the 420 in 1994 with younger brother Hannes as crew. The brothers built steadily toward the top: European bronze (2005), 4th at the 2006 Worlds in Melbourne, European silver in 2007 (narrowly missing gold, by his own account 'three meters' behind eventual champions Chris Draper/Simon Hiscocks), qualifying for Beijing with a sixth at the early-2008 Worlds, then winning Olympic bronze. The brothers jointly received the German Sailing Federation's Fair Play Trophy. After sailing, Peckolt moved into engineering and renewable energy, winning the RWE Zukunftspreis (€12,000) for work on a wave-energy converter.

Hannes Peckolt, the younger brother, followed Jan-Peter into Segel-Gemeinschaft Waldsee and the Optimist fleet, crewing for him from their 1994 420 partnership through their 49er rise: European bronze (2005), 4th at the 2006 Worlds in Melbourne, European silver (2007), and Olympic bronze at Beijing 2008 alongside the VDS Fair Play Trophy. From 2006 he dedicated himself fully to Olympic preparation. After his sailing career, Hannes went on to become a doctor.