Hold Fast: An Olympic Sailing Podcast

For a couple weeks every four years, sailors in the Olympic Games light up our hearts with stories of triumph and determination. Yet, the larger part of their stories happen in the years of training and preparation in between each Olympics.

The Hold Fast Podcast hosted by Nathan Housberg showcases United States sailors with Olympic experience or aspirations as they share the parts of their journey that don’t typically make it to press.

Here’s a two part session with Chris Rast:

Part 1
Chris Rast has been to the Olympics four times. Three as a sailor, one as a coach. Two as a skipper and one as a crew. Once in the 470 and twice in the 49er. Three times representing Switzerland and once representing the United States.

Rast is by far the most experienced Olympian that’s been on the podcast thus far and the diversity of his experiences makes for a riveting conversation. He shares his start in the 470 being coached by the winningest Olympic sailing coach of all time. How he learned from going to the Olympics as a coach and how he worked to improve his teamwork with each of his different teammates.

Part 2
Rast went to three Olympics with the Swiss sailing team, but at the height of his game he made a bold change. He used his dual citizenship to sail for the US Sailing team and he switched positions from a skipper to a crew. At the time the US Sailing Team was deep with talent, but he embraced the competitive challenge and out-qualified every other US team to compete in his third Olympics. This time as a medal favorite.