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Tom Brown was introduced to sailing at age eight, in the famously cold waters of Maine, by his parents.  Two years later, the Brown family would face the loss of Tom’s lower right leg to cancer.  But that didn’t seem to affect his love of the sport – he has been sailing and racing with an artificial leg ever since.  In 1997 he dedicated himself to an Olympic campaign and two years later he was a nationally ranked member of the 1999 US Sailing Team in the Soling class with hopes of qualifying to attend the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. 

In preparation for the Olympic Team Trials, Tom attended a match racing clinic where an accidental meeting with the US Disabled Sailing Team Coach, Serge Jorgensen, led him to consider competing in the Paralympic Trials for sailing.  When his Soling team failed to win the Olympic Team Trials, he had a month until the first race of the Paralympic Trials.  Not to mention that he had never sailed the boat – a 2.4 Metre – which to some resembles a toy.  Although he only sailed the 2.4 Metre for the first time a week before the competition, Tom turned in six first-place finishes for a decisive win in the seven-boat fleet. He would get to represent the USA in Sydney after all.

At the 2000 Paralympics, top-five finishes early in the regatta had Tom in medal contention by the half-way mark of the regatta.  Then, with a broken tiller, he struggled to a ninth-place finish in race seven.  The sailors from Germany and Denmark had, respectively, secured their gold and silver medals with one race to spare in the nine-race series.  That left Tom to hold off the challenge from Australia and France in order to capture the bronze medal.  He would need to win the final race and place France fifth or worse, and Australia seventh or worse. They finished exactly like that. No other combination would have done it. He won with a beautifully sailed race in which he grabbed the lead on the third windward leg to hold it to the end.

Since the Sydney Paralympic Games, besides chalking up two more medal-winning performances, Tom also qualified the USA’s berth to Athens in the 2.4 Metre.  However, he would need to win the USA’s Paralympic Team Trials to be the athlete competing in Athens.  At the Trials, which were held in November of 2003, he led from the outset after winning two races back-to-back on the opening day.  When racing resumed after the layday, Tom built from a slim three-point lead over his closest competitor until he had mathematically secured the series, along with the choice of sitting out the final race.  He opted to sail and ended the series, as he had begun -- with a win.

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