Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Frederico Ricciardi Pinheiro de Melo |
Nationality | Portugal |
Born | Azusa, California, United States | 13 July 1987
Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) |
Sailing career | |
Class(es) | Dinghy, keelboat |
Club | Clube Naval de Cascais[1] |
Coach | Andy Zawieja[1] |
Frederico Ricciardi Pinheiro de Melo (born 13 July 1987 in Azusa, California, United States) is a Portuguese sailor, who specializes in heavyweight one-person dinghy (Finn) and two-person keelboat (Star) classes.[1][2] He represented his nation Portugal, along with his partner and three-time Olympian Afonso Domingos, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and has trained throughout his sailing career with Cascais Naval Club (Portuguese: Clube Naval de Cascais) in his current residence Cascais, under his personal coach Andy Zawieja.[1][3] Born and raised in the United States, Melo also held a dual citizenship to compete internationally for his parents' homeland in sailing. As of June 2015, Melo was ranked twentieth in the world for the heavyweight one-person dinghy class by the International Sailing Federation.
Melo qualified for the Portuguese sailing team in the Star class at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, securing a berth by placing thirteenth at the 2011 ISAF World Championships in Perth, Western Australia.[4][5] He and his skipper Domingos struggled to mount a challenge against a field of fifteen other boats throughout the ten-race series, ending them in the penultimate position out of sixteen with a net grade of 108.[6][7]
In 2017-18 he was a crewmember on the boat Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race.[8]