Emma Wilson is keeping her rivals in her wake and feet on the ground after further underlining her Olympic medal ambitions in Marseille.

Wilson - who competes in the foiling windsurfing class known as iQFoil - won bronze three years ago in Tokyo and bronze and silver in the two most recent World Championships.

Her mother Penny had two top ten finishes at the Olympics in Barcelona and Atlanta while her former training partner, Bryony Shaw, won bronze in Beijing.

Success is all around and expectation is high for the former junior world champion, Wilson living up the hype by quickly mastering the variable conditions in the Mediterranean.

Wilson, 25, has won four of her seven races so far, boasting a significant lead over nearest rival, Israel's world champion Sharon Kantor, at the mid-way point of the regatta.

“I just imagine they’re all my training partners and just imagine we’re in a training session," she said.

"I'm trying to keep smiling and keep enjoying it but it's obviously pretty cool to be doing so well at the Olympics."

Sailing has proven to be a strong medal provider for Team GB at previous GamesSailing has proven to be a strong medal provider for Team GB at previous Games (Image: Team GB / Ben Duffy)

Sailing has been one of Team GB's most valuable medal providers in recent years, with their sailors topping the medal table at the last two Games, winning three golds three years ago in Tokyo.

But their more experienced names, including multiple Olympic champions Hannah Mills and Giles Scott, have moved on to new challenges, meaning the class of 2024 are looking to burnish their reputation in the south of France.

Wilson is one of just two returning medallists from Japan, alongside John Gimson and Anna Burnet, who are looking to upgrade their silver in the Nacra 17 class.

Some events at these Games are blink and you'll miss it affairs but not sailing.

Wilson will race up to 16 times - and will get to discard her worst three performances - before the medal series decides the podium places.

Last year she romped to 15 wins out of 20 races at the World Championships in Lanzarote, the second consecutive worlds she'd gone into the medal races as top seed and lost out on gold.

"I'm still learning lessons but the last two worlds were tough to take, having such a good regatta and still not getting that gold," she added.

"Lanzarote was probably the hardest moment of my career. I felt done with it, I was just so angry and upset because I'd worked so hard and put in so much.

"It could have gone either way but I decided to use it to motivate me, after a while feeling every emotion - and just sad - I decided I want to win something even more. The goal has always been Olympic gold and here we are.

“With my personality, I am constantly debriefing. Every evening I’m thinking about what happened and why it happened. Maybe there is a thing of not trying too hard during the week. But if you qualify first, it makes your life so much easier.

“There is a balance. It’s part of the game, you have to do well all week but the real race is at the end. All my training is focused around that and all I can do is keep trying and hopefully it goes my way at some point.”

Having reached the podium in Tokyo, the Christchurch sailor had to make a mandatory equipment switch two years ago when the RS:X was replaced by iQFOIL - a faster board that appears to fly above the water rather than glide on it. 

Wilson has been adapting ever since.

“I didn’t really know what to expect,” she added. “It was pretty hard at the start.

There was a lot of crashing and quite a few injuries along the way.  

“I’m the kind of person that just gives it everything and sometimes it goes a bit wrong. I broke my toe and had surgery on my arm, tore a ligament in my hand. 

“I said I’d give myself three months, see how it’s going and then I ended up doing pretty well so I carried on.”

Follow the British Sailing Team at Paris 2024 on Instagram at @britishsailing and on www.britishsailingteam.com