Training alone in their International 470 off the south shore of Long Island, New York, in the summer of 2021, Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth were a world away from the spectacle of the Tokyo Games. There, Olympians Stu McNay and Dave Hughes rolled their sails together for the last time, marking the end of the individual men’s and women’s Olympic 470 disciplines and the beginning of the new Mixed Olympic 470 era. For Nordstrom and Bornarth, and many young sailors looking to reach the pinnacle of dinghy sailing, this new coed medal provides a unique opportunity to compete in the Paris and Los Angeles Games.

“It (the switch to a mixed class) does level the playing field a little bit for a new sailor coming into the fleet because everyone has to reset by sailing with a new person,” Nordstrom says. “There’s a lot of younger talent coming into the 470 because I think it’s easier to get into the class given that everyone is starting fresh.”

Nordstrom, 24, from Sarasota, Florida, grew up racing in the ILCA 6, Club 420 and 29er fleets and excelled at Yale, receiving four College Sailing All-American honors before graduating in 2020. Bornarth, two years younger and from Port Solerno, Florida, stood out in the International 420 class, placing second at the 2017 World Sailing Youth World Championships. While pursuing Olympic 470 sailing full time, Bornarth is also enrolled online at the University of Florida.

The pair first connected in Newport in the fall of 2020 through the US Sailing Team Olympic Development Program, an initiative aimed at preparing elite youth sailors for Olympic-level competition. With both sailors aiming for the 2024 Games, they began their campaign with the Oyster Bay 470 Team and were named to the US Sailing Team in 2022.

A year and a half later, now with the full resources of the US Sailing Team, their most significant challenges still lie before them. Following years of intense training and competition, however, Nordstrom and Bornarth are dialing in their performance, and their results are getting them ever closer to the top.

“Last year was a big year of figuring out how to sail the 470 fast—and that is a huge project,” Bornarth says. “Now we’re focused on racing, in-the-boat communication, and how we’re making decisions in tactical situations where you can either gain three boats or lose three boats. That’s how we can go from struggling in the upper-middle pack to punching through to the medal race consistently.”

Developing Olympic-level performance in the 470 is a lifelong mission, says two-time Olympian Dave Hughes. “You never finish learning how to sail a 470,” he says. “It has many modes available to you, both upwind and downwind, and you pay a large price if you spend time in a mode that is not ideal. You can sail the boat at an A level for an entire race and artificially think that you’re at an A-plus level, but you pay the price with your results.”

With Nordstrom and Bornarth each bringing a unique background and experience to the 470, they rely on each other’s strengths to excel in a variety of conditions. “Louisa is an absolute weapon at calling the shifty stuff—college sailing definitely paid off there. When it’s cranking, and Louisa can’t see anything, I’m calling tactics,” Bornarth says.

The ability for teams to rely on both partners in the tactical conversation is paramount for success in the 470, Hughes says: “Most successful teams are running it so that the crew and the helm can appropriately shift the tactical football. You have to be able to transfer authority on the tactics effectively—there’s just so much to be gained and lost in the margins that that’s where the best teams show their prowess, and that’s how you win regattas.”

Training with international partners in Europe has allowed Nordstrom and Bornarth to work with the world’s leading teams while the American 470 fleet continues to develop. “We’ve worked a lot together with the Italians, the Israelis and the Brits,” Nordstrom says. “Being in Europe and being able to go early to events and train together with the entire fleet has been an absolute game-changer.”

The duo also uses state-of-the-art technology to improve during domestic solo training sessions. “We have trackers, and at the end of the day, we can put it all on a tablet and analyze different aspects of our sailing,” Bornarth says. “That makes it a little more productive than it would be if we just say, ‘Oh, we’re going out to look at this new mainsail,’ and we’re by ourselves—we don’t get any data off it. Now that we’re incorporating these sailing instruments, it’s been a lot more productive.”

Seeing success in their ­racing results after years of hard work is a major driving factor in Nordstrom and Bornarth’s campaign. Finishing 13th at the 2022 International 470 European Championship in Turkey, their best campaign result to date, has motivated them to become even better. “Turkey was really exciting, as we were finally in the front of the fleet,” Nordstrom says. “We’ve known we can do it, and it was great to finally get a taste of accomplishing it. I think a big motivation going forward is to continue experiencing that feeling.”

Nordstrom and Bornarth represent a generation of younger 470 sailors stepping into a notoriously technical and specialized class. Spearheaded by the Olympic Development Program and the private Oyster Bay 470 Team, collegiate sailors and recent graduates flocking to the boat are revitalizing what was recently considered a dying one-design class.

“Right now, the problem is we need boats,” Bornarth says. “People are looking to buy more boats, and a lot of the [420] youth teams are starting to cross over. Domestically, US Sailing has done a great job of starting to promote the 470 again, and if we can get 10 boats on the starting line of the [2023 West Marine] US Open Sailing Series, that will probably be the first time in a decade that we’ve had that.”

The 470 remains one of the world’s most competitive classes despite the influx of new sailors following the change to a mixed format.

“I think, initially, the switch definitely leveled the playing field. But as we’ve seen over the past six months, it has fully ramped up—all the top guys are back with new crews or crews from the women’s or men’s squad,” Bornarth says. “You still have all the same sailors that were initially at the top of the men’s and women’s fleets now at the top of this fleet, so it’s still very challenging. Now that we’ve combined the men’s and women’s fleets, it’s gotten deeper. While the level may not be as high as it was in the top three of the men’s or women’s fleets, now the top 15 are there.”

Strong competition is also returning to the United States, with four-time 470 Olympian Stu McNay partnering with 2021 Women’s 470 Olympian Lara Dallman-Weiss. The full consequences of the shift to the mixed format will not be known for years to come, but current results show promise in assisting the development and longevity of the fleet.

“There’s a lot behind the decision for it going mixed,” says Hughes, who serves on World Sailing’s Athletes’ Commission, a body that represents Olympic athletes in World Sailing’s decision-­making process. “Ultimately, it did yield a case for [the 470] being in for another two Olympics: Paris and LA. Does that help the class? Absolutely, it does. Is the class different in terms of the people and the vibe? Yes, for sure. There are some people who have stuck on after Tokyo, but mostly it has provided a lot of newcomers an opportunity in the class. I think it is healthy, and now it is up to the class over the next two years to show that it can become the type of class that is more modern in terms of its racing, thought process and class development, and really deserves to be in the Olympic schedule.”

While Nordstrom and Bornarth have a long road ahead, they’re enjoying every moment of it.

“It’s all about the process and enjoying it,” Bornarth says. “The big thing in our campaign is making sure that even tasks that aren’t that fun, we try to find the joy in it. We tell ourselves every day that we’re living the dream—this is what we want to be doing.”

While the Olympic regatta was a world away not too long ago, the call of Marseille is fast becoming a real thing for Nordstrom and Bornarth. There will be plenty more sails to roll before then, and if Olympic aspirations come up short in 2024, the next big shot in Long Beach is right around the corner in 2028.

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2017 World Cup Series Final, Santander, Spain

Young and new teams will take to the starting line and face off against the more experienced campaigners and big names in the fleet.

As the first World Championships of the four-year lead up to Tokyo 2020, the event will be a benchmark for teams seeking performance indicators as they come together in an international line-up.

One hundred and thirty-three teams have entered, with sixty teams in the 470 Women and seventy-three in the 470 Men.

Ahead of the 470 Worlds, the 470 Class Development Programme has been in full swing, with teams from Ecuador, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, South Africa and Thailand joining a coaching clinic.

Four-time 470 World Champion Sofia Bekatorou (GRE) has been busy transferring her knowledge and expertise.

“It has been really inspiring starting this new project with the 470 Class and supporting developing nations is something I have wanted to do for a long time,” said Bekatorou.

“Having this opportunity is great. It is really nice to see the dreams in their eyes of participating in the Olympics. Putting the fundamentals in place and understanding the amount of work they need to put in to become really good sailors and perform has been part of this week’s programme.”

The Opening Ceremony tonight at the Naval Command of Northern Greece will formally kick off the Championships, ahead of racing scheduled to start tomorrow at 1200 hours.

Racing takes place on the Thermaikos Gulf with three races scheduled for the first day. The weather forecast indicates an increase in temperature on Monday and Tuesday, with the sea breeze filling in later in the day, around 1500 hours at the earliest.

Later in the week, as temperatures ease a bit, conditions will change. But whatever is served up, Thessaloniki is renowned for delivery a complicated and tricky race track, which will definitely test teams’ all-round game.

About the 2017 470 World Championship

The 2017 470 World Championships is organized by Nautical Club of Thessaloniki in co-operation with the International 470 Class Association. Racing starts on Monday 10 July, with a 5 race qualification series and 6 race final series scheduled for the 470 Men and 470 Women fleets, before the top 10 teams advance to the final Medal Race on Saturday 15 July 2017.

All six continents are represented in the 32 nations competing at the 2017 470 World Championships: Australia, Austria, Chile, China, Ecuador, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA.

Races will take place over two race courses, for each of the men’s and women’s fleets.

Fleets will be seeded for the five race Qualification Series into yellow and blue fleets, before being split into gold and silver for the six race Final Series.

The top ten teams in the men’s and women’s fleets will advance to the Medal Races on Saturday 15 July 2017.

Schedule of Events

10-11 July 2017 – Qualification Series (5 races)
12-14 July 2017 – Final Series (6 races)
15 July 2017 – Medal Races, Closing Ceremony/Prize Giving

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48 Trofeo Princesa Sofía IBEROSTAR

A perfect day of three wins in the 49er FX fleet sees Germany’s Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz sitting 30 points clear at the head of the Women’s Skiff class after nine races at Mallorca’s Trofeo Princesa Sofía IBEROSTAR.

Making the difference so far is the Germans’ superior strength and experience, as one of the crews in Palma which have carried on almost seamlessly from Rio where they finished ninth. After a winter off sailing they are straight into the new Tokyo 2020 quadrennial after a February training camp here.

Hungry to make their mark at the 49er FX European Championships when they come to their home water of Kiel in June, the duo who have sailed together since 2011 have been a class apart so far at the European season opener.

“Conditions were good and stable outside and we were fast and so we had three good races. We have good technique and have been sailing the boat for longer than most of the other girls here. It is nice to be leading, on the one hand it brings more pressure but on the other it gives you confidence to know you are sailing well. We sailed together since 2011 and have known each other for more than 10 years.” Crew Anika Lorenz comments, citing input from new British coach Dave Evans as a positive asset.

“We have never even medalled here before. We often make it to the top six and the medal race and so on but maybe this can be the year we win in Palma. We had a long break after the Olympics and did not sail through the winter, so we are back fresh. We started training in February here with our German team mates. After Hyeres we will go back to Kiel to train for the Europeans which is great for us to be able to stay home. It will be great to be home, to race from home, to have friends and family about and all the other girls to come and sail and train with us at home.”

As expected at what is effectively the perfect showcase event for emerging younger talent to step into the aun in the immediate post Olympic period, there is no shortage of standard bearers for the next generation, not least in the 470 class where the host nation of the 2020 Olympics are proving to have strength and depth among their talent pool, many of whom come from their college sailing.

Young Japanese duo Tetsuya Isozaki and Akira Takayanagi moved into the lead in the 470 class with their second and first places today in the final two qualifying races for their fleet.

Isozaki and Takayanagi are among the vanguard of a new generation of Japanese 470 sailors breaking through from a productive squad which train through their national college system, notably from Japan’s Economic University in Fukuoka. Crew Takayanagi, 20, took the bronze medal at last year’s 470 Junior World Championships in Kiel-Schilksee, Germany when Japanese pairs took gold and bronze.

Isozaki and Takayanagi already finished second at the Sailing World Cup Miami in January, runners up to the highly experienced Americans Stu McNay and Dave Hughes who today finish the Mens 470 Qualifying phase in fifth, just three points behind the Japanese leaders.

48 Trofeo Princesa Sofía IBEROSTAR

Kenichi Nakamura, who coaches the squad and who represented Japan in the 470 in 2008 in Qingdao, explains that part of their growing improvement as a squad is intensive month long training periods in the Kerama Islands, a strong wind and big wave venue. They arrived in Miami directly from such a camp and come to Palma after another intensive period:

“In Zamami on the Kerama Islands where they sail, it is in strong winds the seas often between four and six metres. We went to the Miami World Cup and got second after the same pattern, one month of training before in Okinawa. This year they will do another three months of training there so over this year they will have done five months training there.” Says Nakamura

Sweden’s 470 duo Carl Frederick Fock and Marcus Dackhammer, lying third believe they have made significant improvements since they were 28th at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia IBEROSTAR last year and 11th at the subsequent 470 European Championships. “We had a good day.” helm Fock reported at the Club Nàutic S’Arenal, “We got yellow flagged in the first race and then it was hard to get back into it. In the second race we were second. There are a lot of good teams here at the start of the new campaign. We feel good in the boat and definitely have improved.”

China’s Mengxi Wei and Yani Xu stepped to the top of the 470 Women’s leader table completing qualifying with a 1,2 in the typical Palma sea breeze conditions to overhaul the Dutch duo Afrodite Zegers and Anneloes Van Veen.

Great Britain’s James Peters and Fynn Sterritt aggregated 12 points, going 3,6,3, over the first three Finals races for the 25 strong 49er Gold fleet to take the class lead, 11pts clear of the Spain’s Diego Botin and Iago Lopez and 17 points clear of Argentina’s Lange brothers, Yago and Klaus.

That the young Brits are in good shape after their excellent training with the strong British 49er contingent in Cadiz is confirmed in the knowledge that the Spanish and Argentine partners both finished top 10 at the Rio Olympic games.

Crew Sterritt commented: “We had a consistent day. It was not really classic Palma until later in our day so it was quite tricky to start with but we are happy to be at the front of the fleet. We are really happy with the way we are sailing together. We have made a jump since last year and we said that we wanted to make an impact early on in the campaign and so have been working hard to realise that, working a bit more than others. Down in training we were going well against the other British teams but really it is hard to know how that translates to the race course because all the time it is Brit v Brit, but we felt we were going well. Normally we have not been so comfortable here and it has not been so good, but it feels different this time. It is lovely on the water, such a great place to go racing. You cycle along the front here in the morning and then go racing. It is great. There are not many better venues.”

After taking three of the top four places in the Nacra 17 fleet in Miami, British crews are to the fore again in Palma. John Gimson and Anna Burnett, a newer pairing who were fourth in the Florida round of the Sailing World Cup, return to lead the fleet after nine races with Tom Phipps and Nicola Boniface – Miami runners up – in fourth.

Equal levels of top consistency proved elusive across the two races for the Laser class, particularly among the top three sailors who all sailed one bogey result today. Spain’s emerging Grand Canaria based Joel Rodriguez is back at the top of the fleet whilst in the Radial fleet Finland’s Tuula Tenkanen put herself back on track to repeat her Trofeo Princesa Sofía regatta win of last year en route to her sixth in Rio. She leads World Champion Ali Young by two points.

Holland’s Nick Heiner, 2014 Laser World Champion moved into the lead in the Finn class, courtesy of two fourth places, while there is no change in the RS:X classes where Spain’s Marina Alabau and Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski both retain slender points leads.

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The final five medal races were held at World Cup Series Miami 2017, Presented by Sunbrella (January 22-29, 2017) on Sunday, capping off a successful 28th year of North America’s premier Olympic classes regatta. U.S. Olympians Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) and Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.) won their fourth Miami medal in the last five years, with three of those medals being gold. The veteran campaigners, who have reached the podium at top-level events more times than any other American team since 2012 once again led the US Sailing Team in the standings this week. Eight American boats competed in seven different medal races in Miami, and those sailors also became the first athletes to qualify for the 2017 US Sailing Team roster.

“We had a solid team performance this week in Miami, with eight teams making medal races, and I’m happy with what I saw out of our athletes,” said Malcolm Page (Newport, R.I.) the two-time Olympic champion who recently assumed the role of Chief of U.S. Olympic Sailing. “We have much work ahead of us as a team, but we clearly have a great foundation not only of talented sailors, but of collective hunger for improvement.”

McNay and Hughes entered Sunday’s Men’s 470 medal race with a narrow eight point lead over Rio 2016 bronze medalists Panagiotis Mantis and Pavlos Kagialis of Greece in the Men’s 470, and were 12 points over Tetsuya Isozaki and Akira Takayanagi of Japan. The Americans scored 5th in the medal race, which secured a four point overall victory, while the Japanese took silver and the Greeks bronze following a light and tricky contest on Biscayne Bay. McNay and Hughes were also the recipient of the Sunbrella Golden Torch Award, given to the top-performing American team in Miami each year.

“There are no relaxing moments out there on the racecourse,” said McNay, a three-time Olympian who is coming off a career-best 4th place performance in Rio 2016. “There are times when you calm the tempo and tune into the sensations more, but it’s far from relaxed. We had to work hard out there today after a tough start, but we were happy to fight back and end up with the gold.”

Hughes noted that the key to the race was transitioning their tactical and physical mindset as the conditions evolved and become lighter. “It’s taxing in the light air, and its hard to find the correct tempo [on the trapeze] at times,” said Hughes, who lives in Miami full time.

Both World Cup Series Miami champions also tipped their caps to young U.S. teammates and 2016 I420 Youth Sailing World Champions Wiley Rogers (Houston, Texas) and Jack Parkin (Riverside, Conn.), who finished an impressive 6th overall in just their second career Miami appearance. “It’s great to have some young guys around to push the old men,” said Hughes. “We’re fortunate that sailing is a sport that you can do for a long time, and as you get older its nice to know that there’s a younger generation on the way,” added McNay. Both American boats were coached this week by Olympic gold medalist Nathan Wilmot (Sydney, Australia).

Finishing 4th overall in the Men’s heavyweight Finn class was Luke Muller (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), who moved up one spot in the standings with a solid 4th place finish in the double-points medal race. “This is certainly my best regatta in the Finn so far,” said Muller, a 2014 U.S. Youth Worlds Team member and current Stanford University student. Muller was one of Rio 2016 bronze medalist Caleb Paine’s (San Diego, Calif.) primary training partners in the lead up to the Olympic Games, which he said was an important step in his development. “I think being asked to join Caleb in Rio was a pretty big catapult for me,” said Muller. “Caleb and [US Sailing Team Senior Olympic Coach Luther Carpenter (Cypress, Texas)] got me to where I am now. I feel like thanks to them, I can contend in this fleet. Having good speed allows you to focus on racing, tactical moves and making plays. The confidence really helps, as well as not being constantly worried about getting rolled, which you have to deal with in the beginning [of your Olympic-class career].”

Erika Reineke (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) finished 9th in the Laser Radial medal race, and remained in 7th overall. “I had two confident and successful upwind legs today, and some other good highlights this week,” said Reineke, who in 2016 had a career-best 6th place result at the Laser Radial World Championship. “Finishing in the top ten here, with many of the best girls in the world, is a good starting point for the new “quad” (Olympic quadrennium). However, going forward I’ll be looking for podium finishes.”

In the Men’s Laser, U.S. Olympian Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) finished 4th in the medal race, and also remained in 7th overall. “Considering how tactically hard it was this week, with many top guys carrying deep scores, I am pretty happy with how I sailed,” said the two-time College Sailor of the Year. “I had some bad races hanging over me from the first day onward, and it was hard to climb back. Going forward, I have a very full 2017 racing schedule planned. After [the Olympic Games in] Rio, I wanted to start the Tokyo quad fast by sailing as much as I can. I’m fully focused on the Laser.”

Women’s 470 sailors Atlantic Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Nora Brugman (Palo Alto, Calif.) were among the newest teams to compete in Miami this year, but nevertheless came away with a career-first medal race appearance and a solid 8th place final result. “We’re definitely happy with how this first regatta went, and now we have a much better idea of what we need to work on,” said Atlantic Brugman, who was a two-time All-American for Connecticut College, and now works as the Assistant Sailing Coach for Stanford University. “We learned so much this week, and Nora and I owe a huge debt to [US Sailing Team 470 coach] Dave Ullman (Newport Beach, Calif.). “I can’t say enough about how great Dave was throughout this event, and the recent U.S. training camp in Miami. He kept us positive, while also wanting us to be feisty enough to push ourselves and the other teams.”

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article reported that USA’s Caleb Paine was DSQ in the race discussed below as the result of a protest. On Saturday, Day 6, the jury decision was overturned and Paine’s second place finish was reinstated.

Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha certainly like keeping their fans on the edge of their seats. Off the starting line in tenth, they slowly made their way up the fleet, making an incredible climb on the final downwind leg from ninth to second place.

“We didn’t take a lot of risk, and we focused on one boat at a time,” says Provancha on the team’s tactics for finding passing opportunities. “Every little thing you do right helps you make up lots of ground.” In the last race of the day the wind kicked up and a number of boats capsized, but Haeger and Provancha’s conservative and steady progression in the fleet paid off, earning then a second place finish.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

“There was a lot of chicken-jibing happening that last downwind leg,” says Provancha. “We did not do that, I’m proud to say. We were just working our hardest to stay upright and get to the finish line.”

Though their high-fleet finish is certainly a highlight on their scorecard, it’s the first race of the day where their true perseverance showed. In the pre-start, their halyard slipped out of the halyard lock. “We heard the pop about ten seconds before the start, and it wouldn’t click back in,” says Provancha. “It was so windy and we had to put so much Cunningham on that it kept slipping though the race.” Without two feet of their halyard, they still managed to round out the top ten and sail into 6th overall.

New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, who currently lead the class, said the day was all about survival sailing. “It was about as much as we could handle in the 470,” says Aleh. “We were getting totally airborne at points. The goal was to keep Polly on the wire and keep the mast in the air.”

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Further outside on the ocean course, it became more evident that USA’s Caleb Paine should consider adopting the nickname “comeback kid.” In both his final race yesterday and today, Paine staged impressive recoveries in the Finn. Today he posted his best result so far, climbing from ninth to second in the final leg. “I kept looking for a good lane and something to tack into,” says Paine. “The goal is to get the boat to foot and really let it loose.” Like his teammates in the 470, the final leg was the most chaotic in the building breeze and swell, but Paine held on and crossed just behind Great Britain’s Giles Scott. “I need to get my starts a little better from time to time,” says Paine of his habit of starting behind and finishing ahead. “I definitely like making it hard on myself there’s no doubt about that.”

Paine’s second place finish in the race is pending a protest against him, from Croatia’s Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

Six of the ten classes competed today, and results are available at sailing.org.

The post Olympics Daily Debrief, Day 4 — Chutes and Ladders, but Mostly Ladders appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Just last week, World Sailing announced that, after reviewing released reports surrounding doping involving Russian Olympic athletes, six of the seven qualified Russian sailors would be permitted to compete in Rio. One name left off the list: Pavel Sozykin, 470 skipper. His crew, Denis Gribanov, was still permitted to compete and the Russian Sailing Team given the opportunity to choose an alternate skipper. A tall order, considering that a new pairing this close to the Games could spell disaster for the Russian 470 program, ranked 12 in the World Sailing Rankings.

However, today World Sailing announced they had overturned their decision and would allow Sozykin to compete, pending approval from the International Olympic Committee.

World Sailing released the following statement concerning Sozykin on Thursday, August 3 — two days before the opening ceremony:

Having received the additional guidance from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the eligibility of athletes from Russia to compete in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the World Sailing Board of Directors convened today via conference call to review the IOC guidance and re-consider the eligibility of Pavel Sozykin, an athlete who competes in the Men’s 470 Class.

Based upon the new guidance provided by the IOC, it was the unanimous decision of the participating World Sailing Board Members to declare Mr. Sozykin eligible to compete in Rio 2016. This information has been communicated, in writing, to the IOC, Russian Olympic Committee and Russian Yachting Federation.

Mr. Sozykin’s entry for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games must still be confirmed by the IOC and the review panel established through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The IOC provided the new guidance yesterday (2 August) in a circular letter to all summer International Federations. Specifically, with respect to the McLaren Independent Investigations Report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the IOC has indicated that an athlete should not be considered as “implicated” if the McLaren list does not refer to a prohibited substance which would have given rise to an anti-doping rules violation.

In the case of Mr. Sozykin, though he was identified in the McLaren Report in connection with the Disappearing Positive Methodology, the report did not include specific information as to whether the positive test occurred in-competition or out-of-competition. Further, the substance for which he tested positive is not prohibited out-of-competition and, if the sample had been taken out-of-competition, would not have resulted in a sanction.

The World Sailing Board of Directors also noted that Mr. Sozykin has had at least two subsequent anti-doping tests with no adverse results.

World Sailing will closely monitor the continued investigation into the allegation regarding Mr. Sozykin in the McLaren Report. If it is determined that an anti-doping rule violation did in fact occur, the relevant tribunal may disqualify Mr. Sozykin from any results obtained since October 2014, when the sample in question was taken.

The post World Sailing Overturns Decision on Russian 470 Sailor appeared first on Sailing World.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Laser

The Prediction:
Tom Burton, of Australia, has been ranked first in the world since I finished [in the Laser]. He’s strong in all conditions. His coach, Michael Blackburn, is ­excellent, and coached me to my gold medal in 2012. Together, Burton and Blackburn know how to win. Don’t count out ­Robert Scheidt, of Brazil. He’s a nine-time world champion in the Laser and has five Olympic medals. Not the favorite, in my opinion, but if he’s near the top coming into medal day, his experience will be hard to beat.

The Expert: Tom Slingsby
Slingsby is the reigning Laser gold medalist who won four of 10 races at the 2012 Games. He is also a four-time Laser world champion.

Laser Radial

The Prediction: Marit Bouwmeester, of the Netherlands, and Evi Van Acker, of Belgium, each has a shot at gold. Bouwmeester always manages to stay at the top and has the ability to make smart, conservative ­decisions, and knows when to take risks. Van Acker, when she is on fire, is hard to beat. She has an ability to come back from mistakes and salvage great results. Experience counts. Paige Railey has the experience of two Olympics, while Lijia Xu already has a gold and bronze medal, which could help them into contention.

The Expert: Anna Tunnicliffe
Tunnicliffe won gold in ­Beijing in the Radial in 2008. She also won two world championships and was named Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year for four consecutive years, from 2008 to 2011.

Finn

The Prediction:
Giles Scott, of Great Britain, will be the favorite going into the Games. He’s a four-time world champion and won the Olympic test event. He’s not one to take too much risk and uses his speed to his ­advantage. He is also a very level­headed sailor with a great deal of ­experience outside Olympic sailing. There are a number of other main contenders, including America’s Caleb Paine, who could also surprise the fleet with a bronze.

The Expert: Zach Railey
Silver medalist in the Finn in 2008, Railey ­competed in the US Sailing Team Sperry Olympic trials for Rio 2016. He is a three-time U.S. Finn national champion and placed 12th in the 2012 Olympics.

49er

The Prediction:
The overwhelming favorites are New Zealand’s Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, of Australia, will give them one heck of a battle. Outteridge’s results are reflective of the fact that he hasn’t been able to focus as completely on the 49er as Burling has. Burling is one of those rare people where nothing fazes him. He’s so relaxed in bad situations that it’s one of his massive strengths. Adversity doesn’t bother him. The real battle in this class will be for bronze.

The Expert: Marcus Spillane
A self-described weekend warrior, Spillane is the 49er class president and former 49er class CEO. Spillane is passionate about sailing and making the sport more appealing to spectators and fans, and follows the class closely.

49er FX

The Prediction:
There is no doubt that the FX class is incredibly close, with seven different teams winning championships this quad. Jena Hansen and Katja Iversen, of Denmark, are going into the Games as the favorites. Denmark had a tough selection process, and they’ll perform better because they’ve been pushed by their teammates. They’ve faced more adversity and have always been at the top. Their selection finished earlier than some of their competition, which gave them time to focus on Rio.

The Expert: Ben Remocker
As manager for the 49er and 49erFX classes, ­Remocker has followed the lead-up to the first FX Olympic competition ­closely. He sailed for Canada at the Beijing Games in 2008 with Gordon Cook, finishing 14th in the 49er.

Men’s 470

The Prediction:
Mathew Belcher and Will Ryan, of Australia, will be the hot favorites in Rio, and I say that not because of my background. Their boatspeed downwind, and in certain conditions ­upwind, is excellent. They’re the most psychologically confident in the class, which comes from experience at the Games. Australia has been so dominant in the 470, and that’s due to coach Victor Kovalenko. His middle name should be Medal Maker. He has an aura of confidence that he passes on to the team.

The Expert: Malcolm Page
As a six-time 470 world champion and two-time men’s 470-class Olympic gold medalist — 2008 with Nathan Wilmot and 2012 with current Australian 470 representative Mathew Belcher — Page is now the chief marketing officer for World Sailing.

Women’s 470

The Prediction:
Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar, of Austria, will win gold in Rio. They showed perfect form in the past at peak moments like worlds and Europeans. The tricky conditions in Rio will be ideal for this team. During stressful moments, Ogar and Vadlau are cool and calm if they need to be.

The Expert: Lobke Berkhout
Dutch 470 crew Berkhout won a silver medal at the Beijing Games with skipper Marceline de Koning, and returned to win bronze in London with Lisa Westerhof at the helm. She won three world championship titles in a row with de Koning, from 2005 to 2007.

Nacra 17

The Prediction:
The favorites are ­Billy Besson and Marie Riou, of France. They are four-time world champions and won the Trofeo Sofia Regatta this year. Their boat was damaged and they replaced the daggerboards, moving them outside of the class-­specified location. The class has rules on variance, but not the exact location of the daggerboard cases, but the boat was ruled sailable by a jury. They’re the top sailors and would still perform well in a standardized boat, but I don’t think they’d be such clear ­favorites.

The Expert: Katie Pettibone
Though Pettibone and Michael Easton didn’t win American Nacra selection, she has the inside scoop on the class. She has done three America’s Cup campaigns, a Whitbread and a Volvo Ocean Race, and is the 2013 women’s match-racing champion.

Women’s RS:X

The Prediction:
The strongest medal candidate is Great Britain’s Bryony Shaw. She has been the most consistent, winning ­medals at three out of four world champion­ships since 2012. She’s strong in all conditions, and she never gives up. When I sailed against Shaw in ­China, she ­impressed me. She has the mental strength­ ­required to make it through the Olympics. Flavia ­Tartaglini, of Italy, is very strong and ­completely ­dedicated.

The Expert: Alessandra Sensini
Italy’s Sensini won bronze in Atlanta (1996) and in Athens (2004) in the Mistral, gold in Sydney (2000) in the Mistral, and silver in Beijing (2008) in the RS:X. She also medaled in eight world championships, winning four gold, three silver and one bronze.

Men’s RS:X

The Prediction:
Dorian Van Rijsselberghe, of the Netherlands, is the favorite. He is the current Olympic champion and has been sparring with country­man Kiran Badloe. They finished second and third at the last worlds, so ­together they make a solid team. Behind Rijsselberghe, depending on the wind forecast, Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey, Poland’s Piotr Myszka or France’s Pierre le Coq will also be in contention.

The Expert: Julien Bontemps
Bontemps won a silver medal in the 2008 Olympics. He also competed in the 2004 and 2012 Olympics, finishing ninth and fifth overall, ­respectively. He is a two-time RS:X world champion (2012 and 2014), and the 2004 world champion in the Mistral.

The post Rio 2016 Medal Predictions appeared first on Sailing World.

A mantra for many Olympic sailors is “train like you race and race like you train.” In other words, the goal of a hard day’s training is to make the work of the regatta as easy and intuitive as possible — easy in concept, that is, but hard in execution. This approach may suggest that all a team does is sail, but there’s a lot more to it. The work cycle is one of routine, execution and review.

Being a master of one’s routine is what separates good athletes from great athletes. It’s the heart of our profession as sailors, and time on the water is supremely valuable. We must be efficient with our time and never let our work become dull. We cannot simply punch the clock. ­Instead we must determine what type of schedule allows us to command our routine while retaining our excitement for the process. Loss of excitement for the day leads to a loss of excitement for the end goal.

We must also recognize that time is short in the Olympic cycle. There is no “later.” There is pressure to ­master all elements of our sailing, but it’s ­impossible. There’s never enough time for ­every little project. Many experiments and ideas need to be set aside. This is the crux of a campaign that sees the big ­picture and does not get lost in the noise.

Efficiency within the microschedule (the day) and macro­schedule (the months and years) is the Holy Grail of the campaign. As athletes, we are the point of transmission between these bookends. How is what we do today a component of our midrange and long-range plans? Are we focusing on the right parts of our ­sailing, or are we wasting energy in areas that are distracting us from the total effort? ­Merely plugging in the hours does not yield the entire path up the mountain. ­Giving ­ourselves those moments through which we can pause, collect our thoughts, and sharpen our ­execution makes the difference.

What is presented here is a typical training day in our campaign. This one took place in Miami as we built up to the Sailing World Cup Miami in January, but truthfully, it could have taken place anywhere, leading up to any regatta. Substitute “home” for an apartment in Denmark, and there’s not much difference.

Training Day Timeline

06:30 – Wake up, hydrate, make bed. Head downstairs to put on the coffee.

06:45-07:15 – Check weather websites, respond to email and make sandwiches for the day.

07:15-08:00 – Stretching, push-ups, sit-ups and then yoga. Stu heads out for a 20-minute run.

08:00-08:45 – Stu’s back, and he gets straight into breakfast prep. Our ­standing deal before a practice day or ­regatta is that I assemble the day’s lunch and snacks while Stu makes breakfast. This routine gives us a time for discussions ranging from boat feel to campaign what-ifs. Our Games boat is being laid up in the mold soon, and we need to ­review some of the ­systems. Can we add a purchase to the rig tension without ­compromising the throw of the control line? Is a ­continuous vang worth the drawbacks? Should the twing cleats be moved inboard an ­additional centi­meter? ­Every system involves a trade-off of ­simplicity, comfort and concept.

08:45-09:00 –Call with our sail designer. We’ve been testing a few concept ­mainsails and are homing in on two designs. Finalizing the design changes is the easy part, but ­fitting sail testing into the schedule is a taller challenge. Simply tossing a new main into the mix — even if only marginally different — distracts some unknown percentage of ­focus from training. We hang up from the call and transition into a more ­holistic debate over the merits of sail testing and defined decision dates. When it comes to equipment within an Olympic effort, you die if you don’t move the ball forward, test, and be relevant, but you also die if you lose yourself within the testing.

09:15 – Out of the house. Bike to the US Sailing Center.

09:25-10:30 – Covers off and right into basic boat prep. Tiller extension on, check tanks for moisture, check gaskets, and lay out clothes for a final dry. Our work list includes replacing a suspect spin halyard, ­swapping in new centerboard shims, and ­determining if the rudderhead needs immediate attention. Even a casual week of sailing produces play in the rudder system, requiring new bushings. We then run through all the settings, confirming the ­tension, pre-bend, rake and ­deflection at each progressive pin setting. The boat seems to be a bit stiffer today, but that is fairly normal after a less humid and warmer night.

10:45 – Meeting with our coach, ­Morgan ­Reeser. We recap yesterday and run through the week’s plan. Morgan does a consistent job of ­reviewing the long list of the week’s take-aways and prioritizing for the upcoming day. We turn our attention to video clips showing a sequence of our recent starts, good and bad, as well as a segment of downwind technique from a few top foreign teams. The World Cup starts in about a week, so the conversation turns to big-picture regatta prep and a quick review of logistics that need to be ironed out (coach boat, spares kit and so forth). The day’s plan is reiterated. It will be a mix of speed work and sail testing. We’ve formed a training relationship with the Greek and Spanish Olympic teams, so they will be a world-class reference for any tech changes we might make.

11:00-11:45 – Back to the boat. From our chat with Morgan, we’ve decided to tee up three mains: our standard, the primary test sail and a second test sail, should the day go smoothly. Not often can you test three items effectively, but you’d also feel ­silly leaving the sail on the dock if testing conditions proved perfect. Batten prep ensues. This always takes longer than expected, as we want everything to fit perfectly. There’s not enough time to deal with the centerboard shim project, but we do fit in a full clean of the rudder pintle system for good measure. We spend a quick five minutes chatting with the Greeks and Spaniards, outlining what each team wants to accomplish.

11:45 – Off the dock. We head out of the channel while tying on the clew and cunningham and doing our usual on-water prep. By noon, the kite goes up. Our group quickly congregates, and we get right into downwind mode. There’s more starboard than port to get to the course area.

12:00-12:35 – Sparring downwind followed by hard racing until one team pulls ahead. Reset and repeat. Depth on port and an up-bow on starboard are the evident keys to the mode. Take a break.

12:35-13:25 – Upwind tuning. Two more boats have joined; we now have a fine quorum for speed comparisons. Rabbit starts begin each tuning segment, and we all play hard, through enough of both the right and left shift until a victor becomes obvious. The tune ends with the lead boat tacking to cross, as demonstration of how much gain was actually made, if any. Many times, a perceived gain is hard to realize, so properly assessing the tack-and-cross feeling of the day is paramount. Break.

13:25-13:45 – Downwind again. Same instructions as before, except this time the directive is for us to always be the middle boat. Therefore priority on down-bow modes is a bit higher. Wind has continued to be a steady 14 to 16 knots.

13:45-14:00 – Change mains. Prep for upwind tuning alone. Wind has increased a couple of knots. It’s become ­apparent that the change in ­velocity has shut down our ­window for a perfect sail test, but the ­information gleaned is still ­relevant. Some issues with the main are apparent, and we try our best to problem-solve with ­changes in the mast step and tandem spreader. The sail immediately looks better. We pause for a hurried granola bar and water break.

14:00-14:30 – Back on track, we join with the smaller Greek and Spanish groups again for a speed check. Both teams have made tuning changes as well. All three boats are clearly going fast, though we’re still not entirely satisfied with our setup and decide to go back an additional turn on our spreaders.

15:35-15:50 – Solo work on the test main. One additional chock and we’re good. Morgan snaps a series of ­photos. We stop to go forward on the spreaders and take the chock out. More photos.

15:50 – We turn back downwind to rejoin the larger group. At this point the practice racing is over, and the peloton is now making its way upwind.

15:55-16:35 – A rabbit start begins the race to the harbor. Our speed seems to check out after the last batch of changes, so we’re pleased. The Greeks seem to have a click of fast-forward on us during the ­initial stages of each puff. They are known players in this condition. Perhaps we have too much centerboard down. We play the left side of the group and make gains. The Greeks cross over to a righty puff. We also cross over, but don’t dig into the shift enough to realize the advantage. Things are bow to bow on the final cross, and we lee-bow. The session is over. A few tacks back to the Sailing Center with the Greeks, followed by some dockside banter as one person from each boat digs through a mountainous stack of dollies in search of his team’s.

16:40-17:00 – Decompress, jib down, and wetsuits off. We check our tuning and assign priorities to boat work for tomorrow. We discover that the gooseneck rivets are showing movement, and we decide ­another mast must go in for repair tonight to be ready for tomorrow. A bit of a bummer, since this will add an hour of work, but it must be done. All told, we had planned to switch out masts in two days’ time, so in some ways this merely bumps up the schedule.

17:00-17:45 – Debrief with Morgan. The discussion focuses on technique, and from there transitions to a review of Morgan’s mainsail photos. He’s already cropped and selected the valuable images. For tomorrow, we all agree that to reduce variables, we must return to the No. 1 main in light of the mast switch.

17:45-18:35 – Take the mast down, inspect it, and rinse. Shrouds, ­spreaders, traps, compass and watch ­attached to the second mast, and up she goes. The repair to the first mast requires more than expected. We clearly dodged the bullet today with a potential on-the-water failure.

18:35-19:55 – Cover the boat. Backpacks on, Stu heads to the grocery store to provision for the week, and I head to physical therapy. I fractured my hand at the World Cup in Weymouth in June 2015. With all the sailing, the healing process has been slow.

20:10 – Back at the house. Stu has the grill started. I jump in as the house “grill master,” a normal ­assignment, while Stu finishes up as sous chef. Summer squash, zucchinis and onions ­accompany chicken and steak. Thomas Barrows and Joe Morris, two American 49er sailors, join us for dinner. The conversation starts with concepts of lower mast bend in the 49er but centers on the pending Olympic trials. Having coached Erik Storck and Trevor Moore at the last Olympics, I love revisiting my experiences and lessons from the 49er. So often, the 49er and 470 share common themes, even though execution may be wildly different.

21:15 – Dinner wraps up. The 49er boys head home. While cleaning the last dishes, Stu and I jump back into a discussion about ­today’s mains. After 20 minutes, we both agree we’re spent and should seriously consider getting to bed soon.

21:20-22:10 – Back on the computer, as we’re not quite done. Two final ­details need to be sorted. First, we iron out our packing list for ­separate containers, one heading to ­Barcelona and the other to Rio. Both containers will be sent shortly after the Miami event, and any orders for additional equipment must be placed today and tomorrow. Second, Stu and I also race on a Melges 24 team, and our next event is on tap in March. However, that regatta’s sail order needs to be firmed up next week, so we dive into a quick review of inventory. All the while, the background conversation returns to lessons from the day: Could we have pinned up earlier? Which of the bow-up modes felt best downwind? Let’s try such-and-such technique tomorrow.

22:15- 23:00 – OK, that’s enough. It’s time to turn in. I make a valiant yet ultimately failed attempt to finish off a magazine I started on my last flight. Rinse. Sleep. Get up tomorrow and do it again.

The post Timeline to Perfection 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.

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.

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