Balance needed with Olympic aspirations

As the US Olympic Sailing Program smolders from recent disorder, there are many variables at play – some easier to address than others. One of the overriding factors is the overall sport in the USA, and it is this that National Sailing Hall of Fame inductee Robbie Doyle shares his view:

As a former Olympian and College All-American, and parent of a son and daughter who sailed for four years in collegiate sailing, I want to emphasize how important it is for people who are trying to figure out the relationship between College Sailing and Olympic Sailing to read and reflect on Steve Boudrow’s insightful comments.

As an Olympian and college sailing coach, his perspective is relatively unique.

My children were not interested in pursuing the Olympics, but I was when participating in College Sailing. I sailed a shortened collegiate schedule as I participated very little, if at all in the fall season. Instead, I played Basketball freshman year, and then participated in House Crew in other years.

This wasn’t a statement on the sailing team’s schedule but was largely because I sailed so much in Finns, Solings, Tempests, Lightnings, etc in the summer and at times into the Fall that I needed a break from sailing. To my coach’s credit, he accepted this but made me earn my way back onto a starting position every Spring – which was fair.

Perhaps adding to my perspective is my other son participated in College Hockey at a high level. As Steve mentioned in his article, their season was restricted. My son was in the Ivy League so it was further restricted. The team did not go cold turkey but were allowed to skate in the preseason in what was called “Captain’s Practice” which allowed for more individual learning and experimenting time.

To end with a thought on what a constructive next step may be for collegiate sailors with Olympic aspirations would be to have the Olympic Committee sponsor a number of sites equipped with some fleets of Olympic Class boats around the country.

In the “off season” collegiate sailors could be invited for long weekends of fleet racing where they would have longer courses than typical collegiate racing, and where they would learn to handle and tune higher level boats.

Perhaps these fleets could be built up by former Olympians and Olympic hopefuls donating their used boats to the Olympic Team.

Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Program*:
Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 (41)
Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 (41)
Mixed Two Person Dinghy – 470 (19)
Men’s Skiff – 49er (20)
Women’s Skiff – 49erFX (20)
Men’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class (20)
Women’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class (20)
Men’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL (24)
Women’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL (24)
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17 (19)
* Quota per event in parenthesis but does not include Universality Places (2 men, 2 women)

Venue: Marseille, France
Dates: July 28-August 9

Details:
• Paris website: https://www.paris2024.org/en/the-olympic-games-paris-2024/
• World Sailing microsite: https://paris2024.sailing.org/