Buddy Melges, American Sailing Champion, Dies at 93

Buddy Melges said his training on the lakes of the Midwest prepared him for international competition.Credit...Bill Allen CollectionBuddy Melges, a Wisconsin native who became the first sailor to win both an Olympic gold medal and the sport’s top prize, the America’s Cup, died on Thursday at his home in Fontana Wis., on the western shore of Geneva Lake. He was 93.

His daughter, Laura Melges, said his health had been declining over the last year. He had quintuple bypass surgery in the 1990s and had contracted Lyme disease, probably while hunting, she said.

The shores of Geneva Lake in the 1940s and ’50s were not considered a breeding ground for the world’s top sailors when Melges (pronounced…