Bobsails.com Update: Weymouth training; Canary Islands team trip; windsurfing ou

Following the French Olympic Week Regatta, I came home for a short 5 days of rest.   The reason for the short stop over in Chicago was to break up what would be a very long European trip.  Additionally, I wanted to see how my body would respond to a quick turnaround in the States, as I am planning on going home for another 5-day rest in the middle of July.

I arrived in Weymouth, England on May 5^th for 17 days of training.  The weather and conditions were standard: Very cold, rainy, foggy and at times windy.  I teamed up with my Norwegian training partner and coach, Peter, for some productive, onsite training.  We set a few goals before the camp and made a strong effort to address them, without bringing in new topics to work on, we discussed a very streamlined and concise approach.  Ultimately, this allowed us to only focus on a few things, but we made a lot of progress in those arenas.  The primary focus for this camp was to work up towards the Sail for Gold regatta beginning Monday here in Weymouth; however, we did begin to incorporate training strategies that will only be used for the Olympic Games in late July.

Team Trip: Lanzoronte, Canary Islands

Following the training block in Weymouth I met up with the rest of the 2012 US Olympic Sailing Team at Stansted Airport in London for a 4-day team retreat to Lanzorate in the Canary Islands.  We all had an idea of what was on the itinerary; however, a majority of the details were kept a secret.  We had events scheduled every day including workouts, meetings, hikes and lastly an amazing race. The amazing race, loosely based on the show the Amazing Race, took us all over the island in about 9 hours.  We competed in pairs and were challenged by riddles, petty tasks, flamingo dances and demanding physical activities including a 50km bike ride and a 12km uphill run.  After each leg of the race, we would pick up an envelope that would direct us (often times indirectly) to our next location. We hitchhiked, took cabs, ran and did everything possible to get to the next location quickly without using our minimal cash.

My partner, Paige Railey (Laser Radial), and I had a healthy lead going into the last two activities; however, we made a crucial mistake – we went to the wrong beach! We asked a local where our next station was and something must have gotten lost in translation.  We took that information (wrong information) hitched a ride with some German tourists and we were off…in the wrong direction, by about 40km.  We arrived at what we thought was the correct beach, completely out of place.

Regardless of the outcome, the race was of fun and incredibly challenging.  The Olympic analogies were abundant and in a different context, the race was truly an Olympic experience.  Throughout the entire trip, the team grew very close, which is essential, as we will be spending the next 2 months together.

Windsurfing out for 2016, Kiting in:

Earlier this month, ISAF’s (International Sailing Association Federation) delegates made an extremely aggressive decision to include kiteboarding in the 2016 Olympics at the expense of windsurfing.  Windsurfing is the 2^nd most popular Olympic sailing class in terms of individual participants and country participants.  There are clearly some logistical and safety issues that the inclusion of kiteboarding brings to the table; however, the most concerning issue is that the vote completely contradicts the values in which ISAF is entitled to represent.  Three of ISAF’s primary objectives are to: a) increase participants b) increase country participants and c) increase women’s participation.  Below is a chart indicating the disparity between the participation in the most recent Olympic windsurfing World Championships (2012) and the most recent Kiteboarding World Championships (2011).

*note: there would have been more participants in both the men and women’s categories of the 2012 RSX WCs; however, the entries are limited to 120 for men, 80 for female

The most concerning is the non-existent female participation in this new sport. Considering the Olympic ideals that ISAF represents, embraces and promotes – this is clearly a step backwards.  They essentially replaced something that was working very well with something that is unproven and underdeveloped.  There is another ISAF meeting in November and there will be a strong push to reverse the decision.

Kiteboarding is very popular worldwide and majority of the Olympic sailors kiteboard for cross training.  However, kiteboard racing is not entirely indicative of the kiteboarding population.  There are maybe 100 people worldwide (including women) that race kites.  Furthermore, there are only one or two individuals that do it on a professional level.  The dynamic of the sport will change drastically when it goes Olympic.  Instead of two professionals, there will be hundreds of fully funded athletes pushing for six medals in Rio 2016, drastically changing the competitive landscape.  A lot of the current RS:X windsurfers who already kite will take on the new challenge. I have no reservations in saying that the RSX athletes are some of the fittest athletes in the Olympic Games and if they choose, they could easily re-apply their training processes to kiteboarding in 2016 Games and still be on top. 

Olympic sailing classes change every four years; however, there is one thing that always stays constant: the Olympic sailing athlete.   The inclusion of new classes always opens the door for new athletes to get into the realm of Olympic sailing.  However, history has proven the intangible attributes Olympic sailors have learned, developed and massaged to perfection have more often than not surpassed the “head starts” of non Olympic sailors in newly included Olympic boats.  I don’t think there will be an exception with this transition.

I clearly don’t agree with ISAF’s decision and there are a lot of strong opinions circulating this controversial vote.  However, my goal and only goal, has been a medal performance at the 2012 Olympics and I will not let this decision detract from that in any way.  I do, however, express my most sincere sympathy to the many young windsurfers in the US who were in the pipeline to compete in the 2016 Olympics and beyond.