Tokyo 2020: Training while quarantined

Following confirmation from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee that athletes selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics remain unchanged despite the one year postponement, the US Women’s Skiff team of Steph Roble and Maggie Shea need now only focus on their preparation… here’s an update:

Spending this much time away from the boat has been difficult for us, but being quarantined has provided our campaign a pretty unique opportunity. Without practice sessions on the water, we now have the chance to revisit some of our training resources, invest more time in reviewing our past performances, and learn new skills to elevate our game.

For more about the tools we’re using to reflect and keep learning at home, click here.

Self-Evaluation and Review
We started our self-evaluation by rating ourselves on tactics, strategy, and boat handling for each part of the race course, boat speed and our mental skills. Then, we used TruSail and SAP Sailing Analytics to take a closer look at our personal performance with the boat, and our past performances on the race course.

The self-analysis sparked a lot of interesting discussions and has been a really helpful exercise for formulating our training plan and priorities for the next 15 months.

We have also been spending a lot of time reviewing our notes, playbook, and communication. We are aiming to stay mentally sharp and physically strong so whenever we can hit the water again we can jump back into a similar place we left off!

Webinar Chalk Talks
Another large part of our “e-Training” has been the US Sailing Team webinar series with 3 or 4 per week. So far, we have heard talks from Olympians Tim Wadlow and Charlie McKee, rules expert Dave Perry, meteorologist Chelsea Carlson, pro sailor Steve Hunt, nutritionist Shelly Guzman, and about USOPC programs.

Some of our biggest takeaways were about the weather, which is a newer topic to us that we are excited to learn more about, and tactics from skiff legends Tim Wadlow and Charlie McKee.

Fitness
Our fitness program has been one of the most fun challenges we’re facing during the quarantine. We are currently unable to train on the water, so we are turning solely to our land-based fitness program to continue developing our strength and endurance, and we are exercising at home.

We have been working closely with our fitness coach Mike Kuschner, Head Fitness Coach of Sailing Performance Training, to continue adapting our land-based training program to ensure it’s compatible with our make-shift home gyms. Indoor bike trainers and plyometric routines are some of our favorite substitutions, and we have enjoyed getting creative with household equipment to execute some of our exercises.

While Maggie’s neighbors probably don’t share the same enthusiasm for the noisy plyo exercises, Steph’s might at least get a chuckle watching her run with a parachute around the sidewalk in Miami. For more about our home fitness training, click here.

Tokyo Olympic Sailing Program
Men’s One Person Dinghy – Laser
Women’s One Person Dinghy – Laser Radial
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Women’s Skiff – 49erFx
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Men’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Women’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Original dates: July 24 to August 9, 2020
Revised dates: July 23 to August 8, 2021

Details: https://tokyo2020.org/en/games/schedule/olympic/