Tokyo 2020: Pushing to the next level

Success at the Olympic level requires a concerted effort within the national program, developing new talent to keep pushing the leading edge. But this competition requires cooperation when your ally is your opposition.

The alternative is for sailors to seek international partners, combining the best from two national programs while pushing each other to the top. However, it’s difficult to establish these relationships as a new campaigner and risky late in the quad when partners drop out after missing national selection.

The best approach depends on the national program and its success at building depth, which for the Laser Class has always been a strength for the Canadian Sailing Team. Leading that charge is Sarah Douglas who reports on their progress:

The Canadian Radial Team has come a long way in the last year and I am so proud of it. With the Olympic trials at the 2020 Worlds, many national teams will have rivalries and decide to not work together in order to get the individual selection – this is far from the case for Canada.

We have established our team philosophy, the team dynamics, how the team will function in an Olympic trials, and to have a true Team Canada effort. We’ve done lots of team bonding by living together, training together, and doing a lot of activities. We are having a blast doing what we love and it makes the hard training days easier when you are doing it with your friends.

This has all been led by our coach Vaughn Harrison and we believe this will push us all to the next level.