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 Erika Reineke:

Part 1
United States competitive sailor Erika Reineke went to her first Olympic trials in 2015 before she had even graduated college. She didn’t qualify as a sailor for the 2016 Rio Olympics, but she was unfazed. She kept training and eventually returned to the Olympic trials this time in 2019 in Sakaiminato City, Japan feeling stronger than ever. In part 1 Reineke tells us about how she got into sailing, her first Olympic trials in 2015, and how she dealt with pressure at such a high stakes event.

Part 2
In part 1 Erika was crushing it! She graduated from Boston College, won a college national championship, and the Rolex yachtswoman of the year award. But, in part two, her strongest domestic rival, Paige Railey, returns to competition and this knocks Erika out of her groove. She finishes the first half of the two part Olympic trials significantly behind, but shows promise in some following events. She takes us through part two of the trials as she tries to come from behind to get her Tokyo 2020 Olympics berth. And she shares more about her new campaign for Paris 2024 in the 49erFX with teammate Lucy Wilmot.