Frederico Melo
Frederico Ricciardi Pinheiro de Melo is a Portuguese sailor, who specializes in heavyweight one-person dinghy and two-person keelboat classes. 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 in his current residence Cascais, under his personal coach Andy Zawija. 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. 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.
In 2017-18 he was a crewmember on the boat Turn the Tide on Plastic in the Volvo Ocean Race.
