Living in the Scuttlebutt World

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
When the 2028 Olympic Games comes to Los Angeles, the Sailing events will expect a steady diet of winds from a mostly westerly direction, reliably above the necessary minimums, and cooled by the Pacific Ocean. That is summer in Southern California, particularly at the Long Beach venue for LA2028.

I mention this because the Sailing venue in Marseille for the Paris 2024 Olympics is being tested. After two days of racing, athletes are wearing cooling vests to ward off the oppressive heat, and light wind specialists are elevated in the borderline conditions. Plus, the shift to foiling windsurf equipment has them behind schedule, as if they’re not foiling, they’re not racing.

Of the ten events, the early start for Skiffs and Windsurfers has not been ideal, and while the athletes in the other six events are eager to get started, they are happily waiting for the forecast to improve. The wind direction will soon be spinning around the compass as it increases, with this change both welcome and unnerving.

They will all welcome the boring consistency in four years.

The Notice Board for Paris 2024 posts the Case Decisions, with some head-shaking mistakes being made at this level. A competitor in Women’s Windsurfing changed her equipment without permission, while a Women’s Dinghy entrant tried to measure in banned equipment. Both were penalized, but the oddest was how a Men’s Skiff team was found at fault for waxing their hull.

For the USA, the last Gold Medal was won by Anna Tunnicliffe at Beijing 2008, and that is not expected to change at Paris 2024. For aspiring Olympians, a recent interview revealed how it was not so much sailing success at a young age that propelled her to the podium, but rather work ethic.

“I learned a lot about training, about discipline. But I think a lot of it had to do with more than just my sport. It was the way I was brought up. I did the cello in three orchestras. I did cross country. I did track and swimming. So, I had to learn a lot of discipline and use that in my sport. I learned how to win when I was living in Ohio.

“I don’t mean it in an overconfident way. I was at the front of the fleet a lot when I lived in Ohio, and then I went nationally and I wasn’t. So, it gave me that feeling of not liking to lose. I hated losing. It gave me that little spark, that little fire that says there’s a lot of work that you have to do to keep doing. You can never be satisfied with where you are.”

When Caleb Paine won a Bronze Medal in Sailing for USA at Rio 2016, he presented the road map for others. He didn’t have great funding, but he pursued his goal as a teenager, and kept at it until he stood on the podium. A guide to follow!