US Sailing, the national governing body for the sport, has named 18 Olympic-class athletes to the 2017 US Sailing Team. The national team is selected annually and is comprised of the top sailors competing in the events selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The roster is assembled from a combination of sailors who qualified based on results in January at World Cup Series Miami 2017, and additional accomplished athletes who receive discretionary selection from the Chief of U.S. Olympic Sailing, two-time Olympic Champion Malcolm Page (Newport, R.I.).

Through the US Sailing Team and its sponsors, athletes on the Olympic path receive financial, logistical, coaching, technical, fitness, marketing, and communications support.

“Being named to your national team in any sport is a distinct honor, but it is also important to realize that these athletes have embraced a long-term commitment to excellence,” said Page.

“In addition to displaying some fine racing results over the past year, each of these sailors have committed to a comprehensive training and competition plan for 2017″ Page continued. “We want our roster to feature athletes who are internationally competitive, progressing in their training plans, and committed to reaching the top of the podium.”

The 2017 team features seven athletes who competed in Rio 2016, and it is expected that others, including Olympic bronze medalist Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) will return to action over the coming months.

The US Sailing Team started 2017 with good results at World Cup Series Miami, North America’s premier Olympic classes regatta.

Men’s 470 veterans Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and David Hughes (Miami, Fla.), the top-performing American boat in any class over the past four years, claimed their third career Miami gold medals. McNay and Hughes finished 4th overall at Rio 2016, and their near-miss of the Olympic podium has propelled them towards earning another chance in Tokyo.

Joining McNay and Hughes on the national team for the first time will be 2016 I420 Youth World Champions Wiley Rogers (Houston, Texas) and Jack Parkin (Riverside, Conn.), who have made the jump to the Olympic 470 class.

Former 49er sailor Ian MacDiarmid (Delray Beach, Fla.), the first modern-era sailor to win U.S. national championships in two different Olympic classes before the age of 18, qualified for the team in early 2017 and transitioned to the Men’s 470 soon after. He will sail with London 2012 Men’s 470 Olympic bronze medalist Lucas Calabrese (Miami, Fla.) who has transferred nationalities from Argentina to the United States.

Together, the three U.S. Men’s 470 teams have the potential to form a highly competitive unit.

Other experienced athletes returning to the fold in 2017 are two-time Olympian, 2006 Rolex World Sailor of the Year and record five-time Laser Radial World Championship medalist Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.). The road towards Tokyo 2020 will be the fourth full-time Olympic campaign of the Floridian’s accomplished career.

Joining Railey in the Laser Radial will be longtime national team teammate and record four-time ICSA College Sailing National Singlehanded Champion Erika Reineke (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), who in 2016 had a career-best 6th place result at the Laser Radial World Championship, where Railey finished 2nd.

Holding down the men’s singlehanded classes will be Rio 2016 Olympian, 2014 North American Champion and two-time ICSA College Sailor of the Year Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) in the Laser, with 2013 Laser National Champion Luke Muller in the heavyweight Finn class. Muller marked his arrival in the top level of international Finn sailing with a 4th overall finish at World Cup Series Miami 2017, after serving as Caleb Paine’s primary training partner prior to the 2016 Olympics.

In the Nacra 17 mixed multihull, which will soon become a full-foiling class, Rio 2016 Olympians Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.) and Louisa Chafee (Warwick, R.I.) decided to split onto separate boats going forward, and both athletes have found capable new partners.

Two-time Moth class World Champion and 2009 US Sailing Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Gulari will sail with former 49erFX athlete, 2015 Pan American Games bronze medalist and 2016 Olympian Helena Scutt (Kirkland, Wash.). Chafee will compete with 2014 Youth Worlds silver medalist Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.).

The US Sailing Team will feature a young and hungry group of 49er teams in 2017, with a mixture of new and returning national team sailors.

Judge Ryan (San Diego, Calif.) and Hans Henken (Coronado, Calif.) finished second in the Rio Olympic selection series early last year despite a heavily truncated post-college Olympic campaign, and will look to build on that strong foundation. David Liebenberg (Livermore, Calif.) helmed the top U.S. 49er in World Cup Series Miami 2017, and competed in the internationally broadcast medal race. Brothers and Harvard University Sailing Team standouts Andrew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.) and Matthew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.) round out the U.S. squad in the high-performance skiff class.

In the Women’s 470, newcomers Atlantic Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Nora Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) qualified for selection to the US Sailing Team in Miami, but elected not to join the roster this year as their Tokyo 2020 campaign plans are still coalescing. The Brugman sisters will nevertheless train with national team sailors and coaches when opportunities arise in 2017.

To help American athletes achieve their goals, the U.S. Olympic sailing program is looking to build a system based on three primary goals.

“We need to ensure that we maintain a positive and cohesive team culture, focus on athlete skill-building, and create long-term performance sustainability,” said Page. “I know that we have both the talent and resources in the United States to create a top program, and I look forward to working with these 18 sailors and all others on the Olympic path to build the best team in the world.”

US Sailing Team: 2017 Roster

49er (Men’s Two-Person High Performance Skiff): • David Liebenberg (Livermore, Calif.)
• Andrew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.) and Matthew Mollerus (Rye, N.Y.)
• Judge Ryan (San Diego, Calif.) and Hans Henken (Coronado, Calif.)

Finn (Men’s One-Person Heavyweight Dinghy):
• Luke Muller (Ft. Pierce, Fla.)

Laser (Men’s One-Person Dinghy):
• Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.)

Laser Radial (Women’s One-Person Dinghy):
• Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.)
• Erika Reineke (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.)

Men’s 470 (Men’s Two-Person Dinghy):
• Stuart McNay (Providence, R.I.) and David Hughes (Miami, Fla.)
• Wiley Rogers (Houston, Texas) and Jack Parkin (Riverside, Conn.)
• Ian MacDiarmid (Delray Beach, Fla.)

Nacra 17 (Mixed Two-Person Multihull):
• Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.) and Louisa Chafee (Warwick, R.I.)
• Bora Gulari (Detroit, Mich.) and Helena Scutt (Kirkland, Wash.)

The post US Sailing Team Announces 2017 Lineup appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The journey to the Olympics is long and daunting. There are more moments of ­defeat than triumph, so it’s easy to get caught up in results or the distance from the end goal. Focusing too much on these aspects takes the focus away from getting better at the little things that ­ultimately lead to better results and closer to the goal. By accepting the challenge ahead, you get into a better frame of mind to embrace the process. Accept the challenge. It’s what I’ve learned during my four-year Olympic campaign, and it is one of many other lessons I will take with me to Rio.

Learn the game
From all my youth sailing experiences, I learned that improvement came from spending time on the water. Studying and understanding the game gives me a clear idea of how things should be done, allowing me to be analytical about my performance. This allows me to set clear goals and objectives to improve my performance, giving more purpose to my training and competition. Instead of spending more time on the ­water hoping to improve, outworking my opponent with this mindset yields quicker improvement.

Do what works for you
Everybody has a different way of getting around the course. There are things you can learn from every approach, but never forget what you’ve done well to get there. I’ve been lucky to compete against great sailors and to be surrounded by experienced coaches. Each of them has a different way of looking at a racecourse. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to do things in a way that isn’t natural to you, or “forcing it.” Observe and take advice, then think about how it applies to your own game.

Plan to be flexible
Sailboat ­races are in a constant state of flux. The fleet changes positions around you, the wind shifts and changes velocity, and you need to keep your own boat moving as fast as possible at all times. All of this makes it hard to plan the perfect approach in ­advance. Detailed plans can even give a false sense of security, causing one to ignore the present. Have the outcome in mind, but be open and ready to adapt to what is thrown at you during the race.

Keep it simple
Our sport has so many variables that it’s easy to get caught up in all the small ­details on race day. It’s important to be detailed and thorough, but mostly during preparation. When it comes to performing on race day, know the big-picture priorities and race with a clear mind. stay healthy Focusing on good nutrition and hydration in the face of long days on the water, or while traveling through multiple time zones, allows our minds and bodies to perform in suboptimal conditions. For the amount of time we spend in uncomfortable positions, either traveling or performing the physical tasks needed to sail our boats, there’s no limit to the amount of time needed for physical recovery in order to be near our best on the boat day after day.

Stay curious
Sailing is a sport with endless variables and possibilities. Surfing is similar, and I think there is something to be said about Kelly Slater’s mindset and approach. He’s won 11 world surfing titles over 20 years, and while doing so, he’s managed to stay on the forefront of progression in a sport where young pros are getting better. Reading about Kelly and hearing what other pros have to say about him, it’s clear he has a relentless sense of curiosity that allows him to continue developing and getting better, even in the face of his relatively old age and physical limitations.

Enjoy the road
It helps to ­travel with people you enjoy being around. Olympic sailors spend so much time on the road that the people they surround themselves with can have a big impact on their ­experience. I’ve been lucky to spend the last four years traveling with Cy Thompson, from the Virgin Islands, and Andrew Lewis, from Trinidad and Tobago. I first met Cy through high school and college sailing, and met Andrew through Cy, as they knew each other from sailing in the Caribbean. We all share similar interests and get along well, which transformed our group from competitors and travel partners to a group of my closest friends.

Find your balance
When you’re an Olympic sailor, competitive sailing dominates your life. It’s important to stay in touch with outside interests so your day-to-day life isn’t solely dictated by what happens on the water. For me, that means being with family and friends, reading, listening to and discovering music, watching movies, traveling, and surfing.

The post Charlie Buckingham: Lessons Learned appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Finn class certainly knows how to start with a bang. Just two races into the regatta and the level of intensity is already sky-high.

The first race was shifty, frustrating a number of class favorites including Denmarks’ Jonas Hogh-Christensen. “I felt that letting us continue to sail that race made a mockery of the sport,” says Hoghs-Christensen. The Dane failed in reading the shifts and after the first leg, where he went left with the majority of the fleet, he continued to fall back, finishing 13th. His redemption did come in the second race where, after the first four boats were scored UFD, he finished second.

USA’s Caleb Paine and Argentina’s Facundo Bazan read the shifts well in the first race. Bazan held the lead from the start and didn’t let up. Starting furthest right, he saw and got the lift first and took it all the way to the top. “From then, all the race was about was sailing in the pressure and not losing any boats,” he says.

Paine had an incredible comeback in the first race of the day; over the course of two legs he vaulted himself from 22nd to 7th and held that place through the finish. Paine started the race in a decent position, but at the first weather mark he chose the wrong side. “A huge righty came in and basically the whole fleet passed me,” says Paine. “But, I knew it was one of those times where the race wasn’t over and there were two laps to go.”

For Paine, his opportunity came when he spotted a left-hand shift that Brazilian sailor Jorge Zarif grabbed as well. “I took a major risk and I was able to carry that shift all the way up to the top mark,” he says. Following Zarif, who knows the course best according to Paine, was his opportunity to make his gains, passing 15 boats. Paine’s strategy going into today was to keep his “head out of the boat,” and with the whacky wind on the Pao course, his sharp eye brought him a solid starting performance.

The second Finn start was absolute chaos. Four sailors were called UFD, pushing them down to the bottom of the fleet. This opened up the opportunity for the oldest sailor in the class, Slovenia’s Vasilij Zbogar to get a bullet. “My goal for today was to have clean starts,” he says. “I have good boat speed in light conditions and I don’t have to push the starting line.”

Unfortunately for the Slovenian, he’s one of the lightest sailors in the fleet and the forecast for the next few days is for bigger breeze.

In the RS:X, Britain’s Nick Dempsey held his reign in the fleet, though Netherland’s Dorian van Rijsselberghe isn’t far behind. In the last race of the day, dying breeze put Dempsey in a pileup at the windward mark, while van Rijsselberghe was able to walk away with it. Dempsey finished 14th, his worst result so far, but his speed us only matched by van Rijsselberghe. When the fleet returns to the water on Thursday, the breeze is forecasted to be stronger which is Dempsey’s strength. He’s in good position to take his lead all the way through the regatta.

Mirroring the men, Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini and France’s Charline Picon are both sturdily at the top of the fleet with the rest needing to play catch-up. Tartaglini started the first race of the da near the back of the pack but as the breeze filled in she took off, eventually putting an impressive margin between her and second place race finisher, Russia’s Stefaniya Elfutina. She continued to have top of the fleet results to solidify her lead.

The Laser fleet is starting to shake out, with Argentina’s Julio Alsogaray in the lead, followed by Croatia’s Tonci Stipanovic and New Zealand’s Sam Meech. Meech redeemed himself after a less-than-stellar performance in the first day of racing, posting a 5 and 6 today.

In the Laser Radial, China’s Lily Xu took back her lead after dropping to 23rd from a DSQ yesterday. She petitioned to reopen the case on Tuesday and was denied by the jury.

For results, visit: https://www.rio2016.com/en/sailing-schedule-and-results/day-9

Flash Quotes of the Day

“It’s about when you are in the water, there’s the instinct you follow. Sometimes you see something that somebody else doesn’t see and today was a good day for me, I saw good things in the water.” — Flavia Tartaglini, RS:X W, Italy, on her two bullets in day 2.

“I’m just used to these conditions. I like these conditions and when you like some conditions everything is much easier. At home in Slovenia we have these kinds of conditions, with small waves.” — Vasilij Zbogar, Finn, Slovenia, on the first day of conditions for Finn racing. Zbogar holds the lead in the class after two races.

“I have a different approach from the last two Games; I’m much more relaxed and can handle the pressure much better. I’m no longer that focused on the results, instead I want to widen my sailing career and Olympics is just part of it.” — Lily Xu, Laser Radial, China, on coming out of retirement for her third Olympics.

“It would be good to get some more breeze. Is it hard in the light (winds), not physically hard work but its mentally draining. I think the vast majority of people out today had a good and a bad race.” — Giles Scott, Finn, Great Britain, on the increased forecast for Wednesday and Thursday.

The post Olympics Daily Debrief, Day 2 — The Finns Get Shifty appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

It was so windy in Rio the day before the start of the Olympic regatta that the walls of the Marina da Gloria media center were buffeting in the breeze with enough force that the media were asked to leave for safety (ceiling tiles did fall, but no one was hurt.) This type of weather is highly unusual for Rio in August, but the sailors are thrilled by the surprise, as Rio isn’t known for it’s steady wind. There weren’t many boats practicing on Sunday for fear of breakage, save one lone French Finn sailor, Jonathan Lobert, who braved the big breeze for a practice session.

The Laser, Laser Radial and RS:X men and women have the honor of kicking of the regatta on Monday at 13:00 local time. “It’s kind of nice to start first and be finished first,” says US Sailing Team’s RS:X Men’s sailor Pedro Pascual. “We get some extra time to enjoy Rio and I am so eager to get started with racing that I’m glad it’s early.”

The Windsurfers are scheduled for the Pao de Acucar course, the closest to their beach launch and also closest to the city. With a 10-12 knot wind forecast for tomorrow, they’ll hit the ground running. The tide will be flooding, which will make for an interesting tactical challenge as the racecourse is in a circular area and the current can flow unpredictably through it.

The Lasers and Radials will be on the Escola Naval racecourse, further out into the Bay than the windsurfers. With the flooding tide, this area will too have some serious current variance. “I’ve seen completely opposing currents on opposite sides of those courses at the same time,” says World Sailing’s Malcolm Page. “Being close to land, the depth of the water changes dramatically across the courses and changes the current.”

Who To Watch

Women’s RS:X sailor Bryony Shaw is especially strong in bigger breeze, so Monday’s racing will be her conditions. If she can put a big dent in the competition’s confidence, it could carry her through the more technical lighter days that are likely ahead. Italy’s Flavia Tartaglini is also a favorite, and similarly strong in the bigger stuff as Shaw. With Rio as Tartaglini’s first Olympics to Shaw’s third, tomorrow’s racing could expose the strengths and weaknesses of experience versus novelty.

On the men’s side, there’s a group of dominant sailors including London gold medalist Dorian van Rijsselberghe from the Netherlands, London silver medalist Nick Dempsey from Great Britain, Poland’s Piotr Myszka, and China’s Aichen Wang, coached by Bejing gold medalist Tom Ashley. As a “participation class” with provided equipment, the RS:X could be anyones game. With such a deep fleet of talent, it may take a few days to shake out the leaders.

The Laser fleet has an enormous number of possible medal contenders, with Brazil’s Robert Scheidt looking to make sailing history by winning his sixth gold, and world champion Nick Thompson ready to defend Britain’s overall sailing dominance. “There are so many sailors in this class that could realistically medal, it’s pretty wild,” says Thompson. “It shows how competitive this class is.”

USA’s Charlie Buckingham feels the same. “Almost everyone is a contender, it’s going to come down to the best overall sailor out there,” he says.

The Laser Radial has all three London medalists in the fleet, but there are no safe bets for them in Rio. 2012 gold medalist Lily Xu made a surprise return about 18 months ago and has since had moderate results in the class, but hasn’t yet returned to that dominance she showed in Weymouth. The first day of racing will be a good indicator if Xu can set herself up for a repeat performance.

Marit Bouwmeester is again a medal favorite for this Games. The Netherlands holds the most medals in women’s sailing, but has yet to win gold. Bouwmeester will be looking to improve upon her silver from London, but in such a strong fleet it’ll have to be quite a performance. Evi Van Acker, who said in a press conference on Saturday that she is “ready to rumble,” has been a class favorite since before London (where she took home bronze) and has continued to close the gap on Bouwmeester and now Xu. Not far behind is Belgium’s Anne-Marie Rindom, Britian’s Alison Young, USA’s Paige Railey and at least a half dozen others who have a real shot in this class. Day one should provide a bit of a look at who can best adjust to the tricky Escola racecourse, but Rio will require consistency far beyond day one.

World Sailing will provide live 2D and 3D tracking of all boats on all courses during each day of racing. To view the tracking portal, visit World Sailing’s Rio 2016 homepage.

The post Olympics Morning Launch, Day 1: Solo Sailors Start the Show appeared first on Sailing World.

Paige Railey is in a tree. The US Sailing Team is in its final days of preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, and Laser Radial sailor page Railey has been placed in a beachside tree by team photographer Daniel Forster. Posing for the portrait is one of many boxes that each team member must tick off the list today. They’re also tasked with shooting their still and moving headshots in the World Sailing office at the Marina Da Gloria. These images will appear at the bottom of TV screens across the globe when sailing is broadcast on NBC.

“They’ll be using these a lot because you guys are going to be winning,” says US Sailing Team communications officer Will Ricketson as he guides 470 team Stu McNay and Dave Hughes into the World Sailing studio. Once they’re finished with these shots, they’ll head down to the beach where Forster awaits with his camera to take their official team headshots. Then, they’re back in the boat park to rig.

The boat park is a hive of activity. Teams are rigging, dressing, undressing, stretching and sitting around tables at the Athlete lounge enjoying lunch. Bora Gulari and Louisa Chafee, the American Nacra 17 team, are hunched over a notebook as coach Jonathan McKee gives them pointers before practice. At the next table, Marit Bouwmeester, the Netherland’s Laser Radial sailor and 2012 gold medalist, scrolls through her phone, and a line of hungry athletes and coaches stretches around the corner.

The Olympic Regatta doesn’t begin for five more days, but practice regattas started yesterday. The 470s, both men and women, have organized regattas, whereas Paige Railey and her coach Mark Littlejohn have been organizing regattas for the Laser Radial fleet themselves at the Naval racecourse area.

Railey, back from her in-tree photo shoot, is busy rigging while Littlejohn chats with coaches from Canada and Portugal. “The crazy thing is, I’m not nervous at all,” says Railey as she rolls on her wetsuit. “Even when I think about the medal race, I don’t feel nervous.” Railey then ties and velcros her boots, and puts her gameface on. Usually chatty, she falls silent and focused as she prepares to head to on the water, with a slight detour back up to the media center to retrieve her forgotten race watch.

Littlejohn walks Railey’s boat down to the boat launch. “She totally embraces the crazy around here,” says Littlejohn of Railey. “The chaos doesn’t affect her at all.”

That attitude will help Railey when racing starts on Monday, says Littlejohn. “She can handle the unpredictableness of the racecourses here,” he says. “Other sailors I’ve coached can’t handle the changes and the chaos. Paige isn’t fazed by that.”

Littlejohn dodges dozens of people as he weaves the boat and dolly through the crowds to the boat ramp. The dollies, he says, are poorly designed, and the logistics have been a nightmare. The men’s toilets in the athletes lounge are already clogged. But, its’ the chaos of the games that you have to embrace, he says, as he navigates around the Croatian coaching staff. “It’s the Brazilian way of doing things,” explained Railey earlier in the day. “It may not get done a week ahead of time, but it’ll get done.” Here, they call it the Jeitinho Brasileiro, the laid-back Brazilian way of life. Its familiar to Railey, having spent more time here than any other sailor than perhaps the Brazilians (and it’s possible she has them beat, too). The media, the sailors, the coaches and the rest of us will just have to get used to it.

The post Controlled Chaos appeared first on Sailing World.

It’s 8:30 a.m. and I’m sitting at a table outside a Starbucks down the street from the US Sailing Center in Miami. With me are Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha. They’re one month out from their final qualifying regatta for the Rio Olympics. The pressure is on, but you’d never know it. They’ll be training today with the U.S. men’s team, but the session isn’t scheduled to start until 10.

“That means it won’t actually begin until 10:30,” says Provancha.

“Yeah,” chimes in Haeger with a playful laugh. “The boys are always late.”

In a time of media-trained athletes with throwaway one-liners, the two women are surprisingly candid.

“We tend to say things other people won’t,” says Provancha, the 26-year-old crew with jet-black hair and a pearly smile. “It’s the same on the water. We don’t try to filter anything we say.”

While experts argue their openness is a liability, their success is irrefutable. In four years, Team No-Filter — as they occasionally refer to themselves — rocketed to the top tier of women’s 470 sailing. They’re now legitimate medal contenders, which is not surprising.

Greg Wilkinson, their beloved coach who groomed them at Boston College, says, “They were both highly competitive right off the bat — extremely driven.”

Haeger, also 26, is the taller of the two by several inches. She’s an ember that softly smolders and then suddenly ­ignites with exuberance once she arrives at a good topic for discussion, whether it’s first learning how to sail the 470 or a recurring dream about losing Provancha as her crew.

I witness this combustion as she ­describes an early experience with the 470. “I had never really sailed with a spinnaker before,” she says casually before lighting up like a giddy teenager, “and I ­remember reaching at what I thought at the time was really fast. I was like, ‘Oh my god! We’re ripping!’ Briana is like, ‘Just wait.’ And I said, ‘Really? We can go faster than this?’”

Provancha, almost her opposite, ­exudes a stereotypical laid-back Southern ­California attitude, cultivated in San Diego. Her speech even has a slower cadence than Haeger’s.

She describes herself as a “big-­picture person.” Her role, she explains, is to give facts with confidence. “It can be hard when things aren’t going well, but I still have to express what’s going on positively. Part of that is trying to suppress emotions,” she says. They’re competitive to the core, she adds, but there are moments in which they need to temper that tendency and realize there are things they can’t control.

“I will be freaking out and Briana will be like, ‘OK, team inhale,’” says Haeger. “Or she will say ‘positive delta,’ which means that if we’re in 20th, we just need to work on getting to 18th or 15th — anything better than 20th.”

At the 2016 International 470 Worlds in Argentina, they and everyone else contended with thick carpets of seaweed, dramatic windshifts and frequent storms. They finished sixth but took it in stride — just another building block of the campaign. “There are tons of things that neither Annie nor I can do anything about,” says Provancha. “The only thing we can do then is think, ‘What can I do right now to make the boat go fast?’”

Wilkinson says the pressure cooker of college sailing taught them to perform under duress. “It’s probably the thing I worked most on with them,” he says.

Conventional wisdom among top sailing teams, especially among pairs, is that good friends don’t make good teammates. Haeger and Provancha appear to be the exception. That doesn’t come without deliberate ­effort, however.

“We do have to be cautious at certain times because it’s difficult when you have someone who’s your best friend and conflict comes up,” says Haeger. “But it’s nice to know that even if we have a rough day, we’ll just go our separate ways, relax a bit, come back, and we’ll be set to go. That’s because we have such similar goals.”

While the stress they feel when racing is something with which most any competitor can identify to a degree, the Olympic path is fraught with obstacles. “I didn’t realize how much time we’d be spending away from home, how lonely it can get, and how much travel affects relationships with your friends and family,” says Haeger.

Her grandmother turned 80 recently, and there was a huge family gathering. “I was the only grandchild who wasn’t there,” she says. She turns to Provancha. “Where were we, in Denmark?”

“No, Rio,” Provancha replies. Four years on the campaign trail, the blur has arrived.

From her perspective, Provancha says, everything is about balance — friends, ­family, work and personal time. “This is not really a Briana show or an Annie show,” she says. “This is about Briana and Annie and their extended families. Everybody sacrifices. I don’t have a car, so whenever I’m home, someone has to share a car with me. Or I have to share a room with someone. My parents worry about my health, the traveling and the stress of racing. It really is a much bigger team than most people realize.”

Haeger’s roots stretch back to sailing Optimist dinghies on Wisconsin’s Lake Beulah, where she also fell under the spell of Olympian Sally Barkow. “She was always sailing against boys and girls, and she was beating the boys,” says Haeger. “I thought, ‘I want to beat the boys like that.’”

Hall of Famer Buddy Melges also contributed to Haeger’s skill set. “I sailed with him when I was really small, and he did this awesome thing where he was never looking at the pressure immediately around the boat, but was always looking up the lake,” she says. “That way, he knew what was coming down, could anticipate it and plan for the next shift.”

Her regret? Melges once invited her to go duck hunting, an invitation she declined. She kicks herself for it to this day. “If he ­invites me again, I’ll go for sure,” she says.

Provancha started her path in the Sabot. The mere mention of the ubiquitous square boat with leeboards evokes a playful taunt from Haeger. The Opti-Sabot rivalry runs deep between the two.

“Hey, we’re proud of our Sabots,” says Provancha with a laugh. “You have a good boat and you pass it down to your kids. Our family even has ours shrink-wrapped.”

Provancha’s parents divorced just before she entered high school, and as a result, she had a choice of schools: Point Loma or La Hoya. La Hoya was the better school, she says, but Point Loma had the better sailing team.

“I begged and begged my parents to let me go to Point Loma,” she says. “I was crying and was like, ‘I don’t understand.’” They conceded, with one stipulation: “Get one B, and you’re at La Hoya.”

She was named valedictorian of her class, but more importantly, she notes, she got to watch Olympic 470 sailor Graham Biehl, who was sailing with Stuart McNay in his first quad.

“That was when the 470 was still the youth champs boat, and I remember thinking, ‘I can do that,’” she says. “That was the bar, and it definitely made me believe that if I just worked hard and copied and observed, I could do it one day.”

As the two of them rig their 470 at US Sailing’s Olympic training center in ­Miami, the teamwork that has led to their success on the water is immediately apparent. The starboard shroud hangs up in its spreader, preventing the upper part from drawing taut. Haeger steps on the 470’s deck and attempts to pull it through but is ­unsuccessful.

She then politely offers the job to Provancha: “Could you see if you could pull it through?” Success.

While fully cooperative, they can also be somewhat territorial. Haeger once rigged the spinnaker. “I lost my rigging privileges for it,” she says, “and I deserved it. I think I put the twing on backward or something.”

Provancha rushes to her partner’s defense: “It’s not that bad. ­Obviously, Annie can 100 percent rig a ­spinnaker.”

“But you know,” says Haeger, “[splitting up the work] helps in a way because then you don’t have to focus on the other person. It requires a lot of trust, and I think that was the first step. Once we got to trusting each other, it got way, way easier.”

They go about their individual tasks for the day, Provancha replacing a broken spinnaker ratchet block and Haeger wielding a 7-inch ceramic Bowie knife as she rigs a mainsheet bridle. “A Christmas gift from my boyfriend,” she says with a wry smile, slicing off a small piece of whipping twine. Then it’s off to practice, which they view quite differently than they view events. “I’ve never even thought about not getting up for an event,” says Haeger. “I don’t know if I would ever burn out. You should see me playing a board game. I will do ­anything to win.”

Practice is a different story, though. Both women are highly results-­driven, and after practice, there’s no scoresheet on which to evaluate their performance. For Provancha, the most important part of their practice isn’t their debrief; it’s the pre-brief. “I get crazy if there isn’t a plan,” she says. “I death-spiral. Ask Annie. I think if I got a job interview and they asked me what my biggest weakness was, I’d say not knowing the plan, not being clued in. If I come off the water and don’t feel like I’ve accomplished anything, I just feel like I wasted a day. That’s the worst feeling ever.”

While Haeger shares Provancha’s perspective with regard to practices, her personal challenges are very different. Before transitioning into doublehanded dinghies, she developed in the solitary confines of the Optimist and Laser Radial.

“When you’re sailing by yourself, you never have to say anything,” says Haeger. “When we first started sailing together, I didn’t even count down to tacks. I would literally scream, ‘Here we go!’”

With Provancha requiring adequate time to come off the trapeze, problems occasionally arose. “I remember one of our first [Olympic-class regattas],” says Provancha. “We were sailing windward-leewards with gate marks, and our coach at the time, Adam Roberts, said the only goal for the event was for Annie to say which gate we were going around loud enough so I could hear her.”

But even that posed problems because Haeger is dyslexic. “Which means I don’t know lefts from rights,” she explains. “So as we’re going into the gate, I’m trying to verbally identify which mark we’re going to round … poor Bri. Finally I yelled, ‘That one!’ I pointed to the mark, but of course Briana couldn’t see where I was pointing.”

They’ve since worked through that challenge, however. Controls on their boats are color-coded. When they’re sailing downwind, approaching a gate mark, with Haeger ­always on one side of the boat and Briana on the other, Haeger will say, “rounding my side” or “rounding your side.” Upwind, it’s “our side” or “the other side,” or “over your shoulder” or “in front of you.”

“It definitely took some time to get that down,” says Provancha, “but it’s no longer really an issue. With stuff like this, you learn to appreciate each other’s quirks.”

Lest she be caught in a situation where she must tell right from left, Haeger carefully writes a small “L” on her left hand with a Sharpie before each sail. “We were joking the other day that she should just get a tattoo,” says Provancha.

And when the curtain finally comes down on the 2016 Olympics?

“I’ll remember the fun times,” says Haeger.

Provancha agrees. “Plus, you learn so much about yourself,” she says. “I look back at the Briana who graduated from college, and I think, ‘Oh my god!’ I feel I can now handle situations better, like I have a better grasp on some things. I think it’s a certain maturity.” For Provancha, post-Olympic plans ­include taking a few months off to ­travel with her boyfriend in Australia, and perhaps getting serious about a job the following spring.

Haeger is looking forward to having her own apartment. “Someplace I can call home and not live out of my suitcase, [which is] a model called the Space Station,” she says. “I’d like to burn it, but it’s already been through hell and back.”

Perhaps if all goes according to script, she’ll have a chance to set it aflame before departing Rio at the end of the summer. A medal would require carry-on only.

The post Team Haeger/Provancha: The Stars Aligned appeared first on Sailing World.

To friends and supporters of our National Team,

On August 5, when the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team lines up to march as part of Team USA in the Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony, the athletes will be confident in the knowledge that they have completed extensive preparations to compete in Rio. The US Sailing Team Sperry committed early in the 2016 Olympic quadrennium to “embrace Rio” and acclimatize to the Games environment. We have worked for several years to learn and experience the Rio 2016 competition venue, and everything that Rio delivers with its challenging racing conditions, spirited culture and concerns about health and safety. With the spotlight about to shine bright on the Olympic Games, I’d like to take the opportunity to share some of the details of USA’s preparations with you.

The team has followed a high-performance plan that features comprehensive research of Rio’s sailing conditions while maximizing the athletes’ training time on the Olympic racecourses. Over the years the US Sailing Team Sperry has built and managed a large-scale operation in Rio, which resulted in an unmatched training infrastructure for American sailors. The athletes have sailed extensively on the seven Rio racecourses, in the best equipment, while surrounded by a team of coaches and experts dedicated to supporting them. We have assembled a world-class coaching staff for Rio 2016, drawn from the ranks of proven performers on the biggest stages in the sport. To prepare for such a wide range of conditions across the Rio courses—four courses inside Guanabara Bay and three ocean courses outside the bay—we’ve studied the winds and currents with a combination of technology, expert analysis, athlete & coach input and the time investment required to gain experience. USA sailors have done the work to prepare for Rio racing and feel comfortable in Rio’s challenging Games setting. It’s a place where we enjoy sailing and living, and though comfort doesn’t win sailboat races it certainly helps the athletes form a winning mindset.

SOFIA TROPHY 2014

Our strategy from the beginning, and one shared by many top teams, was to maximize our training days on the Games racecourse. To efficiently and safely accomplish this, we needed a home base in Rio that offered access to all the Rio 2016 racecourses and security for personnel and equipment. This brought us to Niteroi, a suburb across the bay five miles to the east of the city. The US Sailing Team training base in Niteroi has met our team’s needs since on-site training began in 2013 and introduced us to incredibly welcoming, generous and talented locals we now consider to be part of our team. It’s one of the only venues in the area that can fit our team’s large footprint—Olympic and Paralympic race boats, coach boats, and enough spare gear to fill an entire 40-foot container. A big reason we landed in Niteroi was to establish a base of operations that would provide a safe and convenient environment to train. Although Niteroi is not immune from security risks, it has served us well through the training periods, during which U.S. athletes, coaches and support staff have followed a tried-and-tested team safety protocol.

From a strategic point of view, we viewed data acquisition and analysis as critical to success. Because Rio has never been a regular stop on the Olympic sailing circuit, there isn’t an existing body of experience to draw from. It takes years to learn the nuances of Guanabara Bay’s flat-water and current-driven courses as well as the open-water ocean courses outside the bay. The athletes have timed their training with the tide cycle matching the Games tide and learned to prepare for what will likely be compact racing days—sailing from 1300-1730 on a typical day—due to a late-filling sea breeze and early winter sunset. Many US Sailing Team athletes have personally logged more than 125 days in Rio in preparation for the Games, experience that has been informed by the team’s medical protocol.

A major part of our national team’s preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games continues to involve measures to prepare athletes for potential issues surrounding health and safety. Long before media headlines appeared about the challenges Rio presents as host of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we had concerns about the health and safety of US Sailing Team athletes. We set out to prepare them for the experience, and have closely monitored the situation over the past three years. US Sailing started taking actions in 2013 with measures that seek to control what we can control and give our team confidence about the concrete steps taken to keep them healthy, safe and ready to race.

After completing our own water testing in 2014 in collaboration with the U.S. Olympic Committee, our team’s medical advisors from the University of Miami formed a set of recommendations that serve as the basis of a protocol designed to protect athletes and coaches. Preparations include vaccinations, best practices to mitigate risks on and off the water, and treatment guidelines in the event someone falls ill. The protocol has incorporated athlete and coach feedback and gets updated continuously. We have gained valuable experience in Rio, while following the expert medical advice of team doctors, and feel there are concrete steps that can be taken to keep our athletes and coaches healthy.

Recent refinements to the team’s medical protocol deal primarily with the Zika virus. The team has approached Zika the same as water pollution—gather information, inform the athletes, mitigate risks and be prepared to treat. Zika remains a developing international medical concern, and we feel confident in the work the USOC Sports Medicine team is doing to advise our team. It helps that the Olympic and Paralympic Games occur during winter, with cooler temperatures and fewer mosquitos. Regardless of the time of year, we follow guidelines for prevention of mosquito bites and work closely with the USOC medical team on a plan for rapid testing and treatment of symptoms.

When the team lands in Rio next week for the Games period, we will activate our city operations plan, with most athletes and several coaches living in the Olympic Village. Several factors led to our decision to stay here, including security, nutrition control and its motivational Olympic atmosphere. The majority of the team’s staff will stay at a dedicated US Sailing Team headquarters compound near the Marina da Gloria sailing venue. The same staff that has supported the athletes throughout their training periods in Niteroi— coaches, a sports psychologist, physiotherapists, a tactical advisor and local professional chefs—will be based at this facility. We are working in partnership with the USOC on team security and medical coverage during the Games period, with plans that cover the sailing team between the Village, Gloria team headquarters and sailing venue.

With these preparations in place, the athletes are in position to focus on what they’ve spent their careers training for—racing at the Olympic Games. Team USA will be in Rio for the express purpose of performing, and we’ll sail with the confidence that comes from being acclimated to an environment. We’re excited about the racing, and with a few weeks to go our whole team, from the athletes to the staff supporting them, is feeling “Rio ready.” As sailors who have benefitted from a positive experience while training these past few years in Rio, we hope the world will enjoy watching our sport on display against the beautiful backdrop of Rio de Janeiro. Go USA!

Sincerely,

Josh Adams

Managing Director of US Olympic Sailing

Team USA Team Leader (Sailing)

The post US Sailing Team Sperry: Ready for Rio appeared first on Sailing World.

In the cockpit of the Finn belonging to Caleb Paine (USA) there is a decal that reads “No Paine, no gain”. This very much sums up his attitude towards making sure he is the absolutely best prepared he can possibly be come the start of the Olympic Games in August.

“I think that no matter what, in the toughest times when you are out there training, it is being able to keep pushing no matter what. You are not always going to win every drill, or be the fastest downwind, but you keep working. I think I’ve always been hard working but you are going to do everything you can to win that one spot and be the better sailor or athlete in the end.”

Caleb Paine started off sailing the Finn when he was 19. “I was introduced to it by a guy named Scott Mason from Long Beach, California. I sailed the boat once, totally loved it and realised it would give me the ability to go to the Olympics and possibly win a medal. As soon as I graduated high school I had the opportunity to sail with Zach Railey (USA) and train with him and I was his training partner leading up to the 2012 Games.”

After Railey stopped sailing following the London 2012 Games, Paine assumed his place as the top Finn sailor in the US. He won World Cup regattas in Miami and Medemblik and briefly rose to World No. 1. Since then he has been a regular at the front end of the fleet, including seventh place at the 2014 ISAF Sailing World Championship where he qualified the USA for its Finn place in Rio.

To win his place on the US Sailing Team he first had to defeat his former training partner, who had made a very late comeback to try for this third Olympics. He says Railey returning to the campaign trail, “helped me drive and work harder. I actually 100 per cent believed every day, even if he was or wasn’t, I just told myself that he was going to come back to sail.”

Paine had not even started Finn sailing when Railey had won his medal, however he eventually overcame Railey in the final and decisive trials regatta at the Finn European Championship in Barcelona in March. Railey’s tactics made headlines on sailing columns worldwide, but Paine, stayed calm, won the trials and his ticket to Rio.

From the start Paine has committed himself fully to training in Rio and learning its tricks. Over the past three years he estimates he has spent more than three months training there. It’s a big commitment. “Yes, but at the same time I get to see Brazil and sail in Brazil even if I hadn’t have qualified it still would have been have been something worthwhile.”

“US Sailing did a great job in going down in the year after the London Games and scoped the whole area out and went to Rio and saw some of the difficulties in living on the Rio side, but went over to Niteroi and realised it’s the same distance to all the sailing venues and closer to some of the outside ones and it was just a great place to sail. It’s safe, family orientated, you walk around at night no problems, pretty low key and you don’t have a lot of the distractions that you have over on the Rio side. It’s been a great facility and it’s worked very well.”

“I think a lot of people have been training in Rio for a long time, and it’s been great sailing and I look forward to sailing in the harbour. It’s quite challenging. And from that aspect, it’s one of the hardest and most difficult places to sail but that also makes it fun.”

Since making the US Sailing Team he says he has been focusing on improving his starting technique, downwind technique and getting used to some of the equipment that he will be using. “Just spending lots of time in the boat and getting as comfortable with the equipment as possible. Just so there are no surprises or question marks, so I can go in to the Olympics totally confident and sure of everything that I have.”

“I would say I am fairly positive, but a realist at the same time. I can fully understand where I stand but that also gives me the ability to see the path I need to take to do the best I can or succeed.”

Like most sailors he is sidelining all the other issues that have surrounded preparations for the Games. “If you look all over the world there are pollution problems and I’ve been there a long time and been OK, never been sick and had zero problems whatsoever. But just like when you travel anywhere abroad you are going to take measures to make sure you are safe. I have done everything I need to do to make sure I am safe in Brazil.”

“We all have to deal with it, all the sailors have to sail in the same circumstances, and some people will let it take advantage of them and it may affect the way they perform but it’s the same for everyone so you might as well perform the best you can in the circumstances you are presented with.”

“I think it’s going to be very, very tough. I think it’s going to be close racing, due to the racecourses and the challenging aspects of those courses. I think it’s going to be very exciting and I think there is going to be some very close points by the end of the regatta and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”

The post No Paine, No Gain appeared first on Sailing World.

From the Olympic test events to training camps, almost every Olympic-bound sailor has had the opportunity to sail on Guanabara Bay and, more importantly, to match up against their competition prior to the Games. The practice regattas give both sailors and coaches a report card of sorts, providing feedback on their performance and areas of possible improvement. With the complications in current, wind pattern and other course challenges, learning the venue is also an added bonus.

In the 470 class, both men and women’s powerhouse teams have been throwing down in organized coaches’ regattas since mid-May. Most teams are the Olympic pairings we will see in August, with a few training partners sprinkled in. “The coaches rotate through being PROs and on the mark boats, so the competition has been pretty fair,” says US Sailing Team Sperry’s Briana Provancha.

For Stu McNay and Dave Hughes, these regattas have been vindication of their hard work leading up to Rio. They were uncontested in the US Sailing Team trials, and were able to turn their attention to the international fleet sooner than many of their teammates and their competition. They’ve consistently been in the top of the fleet in World Sailing events and class championships, including gold at the Sailing World Cup Miami in January, silver at the Trofeo Princess Sofia in March and bronze at 470 worlds in April.

Of the three scheduled coach’s regattas, the American-flagged 470 team has won two, with the final competition scheduled to run July 11 to 18. “Of course, we’re stoked about having won both events,” says Hughes. “More importantly, we’re looking to keep that momentum going for Act 3 and the ‘Big Dance’ in August.”

In Act 1, May 13-20, McNay and Hughes finished 37 points ahead of the second place team, Lucas Calabrese and Juan de la Fuente from Argentina. Notably, they also finished well-ahead of the Croatians (Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic), the Australians (Mat Belcher and Will Ryan) and the Brits (Luke Patience and Chris Grube), all of whom are ranked higher in the World Sailing rankings than the Americans and have been lauded as medal favorites going in to the Games.

In Act 2, McNay and Hughes had a similarly strong performance, but finished only six points ahead of New Zealand’s Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Wilcox. The regatta, which ran from June 24-27, was smaller than the first, but the major players did compete and McNay/Hughes came out on top once again.

The Games, of course, will be its own regatta, but McNay and Hughes’ performances so far are encouraging omens for fans of American Olympic Sailing.

The post Team McNay/Hughes Dominate in Rio Coaches’ Regattas appeared first on Sailing World.

For more on the Uncharted Waters Project, visit http://uncharted.sunbrella.com/

The post Uncharted Waters Doumentary appeared first on Sailing World.