Moving on from Olympic Sailing to the Fastnet Race
Olympic sailing wrapped up on Wednesday, and the US team will return home empty-handed.
Final Results
Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 (Laser)
Gold: Matt Wearn, AUS
Silver: Tonci Stipanovic, CRO
Bronze: Hermann Tomasgaard, NOR
13th: Charlie Buckingham, USA
Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 (Radial)
Gold: Anne-Marie Rindom, DEN
Silver: Josefin Olsson, SWE
Bronze: Marit Bouwmeester, NED
37th: Paige Railey, USA
Men’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Gold: Mathew Belcher/Will Ryan, AUS
Silver: Anton Dahlberg/Fredrik Bergstrom, SWE
Bronze: Jordi Xammar/Nicolas Rodriguez Garcia-Paz, ESP
9th: Stu McNay/Dave Hughes, USA
Women’s Two Person Dinghy – 470
Gold: Hannah Mills/Eilidh McIntyre, GBR
Silver: Agnieszka Skrzypulec/Jolanta Ogar, POL
Bronze: Camille Lecointre/Aloise Retornaz, FRA
12th: Nikole Barnes/Lara Dallman-Weis, USA
Men’s Skiff – 49er
Gold: Dylan Fletcher/Stuart Bithell, GBR
Silver: Peter Burling/Blair Tuke, NZL
Bronze: Erik Heil/Thomas Ploessel, GER
(No USA sailors)
Women’s Skiff – 49erFx
Gold: Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze, BRA
Silver: Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke, GER
Bronze: Annemiek Bekkering/Annette Duetz, NED
11th: Stephanie Roble/Maggie Shea, USA
Men’s One Person Dinghy Heavy – Finn
Gold: Giles Scott, GBR
Silver: Zsombor Berecz, HUN
Bronze: Joan Cardona Mendez, ESP
13th: Luke Muller, USA
Men’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Gold: Kiran Badloe, NED
Silver: Thomas Goyard, FRA
Bronze: Kun Bi, CHN
9th: Pedro Pascual, USA
Women’s Windsurfing – RS:X
Gold: Yunxiu Lu, CHN
Silver: Charline Picon, FRA
Bronze: Emma Wilson, GBR
15th: Farrah Hall, USA
Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17
Gold: Ruggero Tita/Caterina Banti, ITA
Silver: John Gimson/Anna Burnet, GBR
Bronze: Paul Kohlhoff/Alica Stuhlemmer, GER
9th: Riley Gibbs/Anna Weis, USA
For complete results in sailing, see https://tokyo2020.sailing.org/results-centre.
Team USA has been winning medals in many other sports. Why not sailing?
From Paul Cayard
Paul Cayard has been the executive director of US Olympic Sailing since March 2021. In an open letter, the two-time Olympian wrote, “Our team prepared hard for the last five years, and raced with intensity and professionalism here on the big stage. While we were not medal favorites in any event, each of our 13 Olympians were competitive in the most elite field of play in the sport. They represented their country extremely well, both on and off the water. They also worked through unprecedented pandemic-related challenges that impacted both their performance development and their lives in general.
“Team USA has a long history of dominance in Olympic Sailing. At Los Angeles 1984, our team won nothing but Gold and Silver in all seven events. In the eight years from ’84-‘92, we were the dominant sailing team in the world, winning 21 medals. In the last three Olympiads, 2012-2020, Team USA has come away with a total of one bronze. We are no longer the winningest nation in Olympic history. That honor has now gone to Great Britain, who have been the dominant team after a complete makeover of their strategy following Atlanta 1996.
“Moving up the Olympic pecking order is not going to be easy. No one is going to get out of our way. We need to build a machine that puts teams and athletes in a position where their usual routine will produce a podium result on a regular basis. This is about cultivation, education, preparation and execution on game day. This is about proper process and procedure.
“Seven of our Tokyo 2020 athletes, along with other standout Americans who did not win their Olympic trials, have already committed to continuing towards Paris 2024. Continuity is critical.”
Read Cayard’s entire letter here.
Fastnet Starts Sunday
Over the weekend, the attention of the armchair sailor can shift from the Olympics to the 49th Rolex Fastnet Race. We’re particularly interested because San Franciscan Harmon Shragge will be crewing. Regular readers may recall that we covered Harmon’s experiences in the Clipper Race in past years. Harmon will sail aboard the old Vestas Volvo 65, now called Sisi. “There are a bunch of ex-Clipper people on it, as well as at least one other Bay Area person,” he said. “Should be crazy — we cannot set foot in England.” COVID restrictions are shifting this week in the UK, perhaps allowing for fully vaccinated foreigners to set foot on British soil, but the situation remains confusing.
The Fastnet will start on Sunday, August 8, from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes, UK. The first warning signal is at 11 a.m. British Summer Time (1000 UTC; that works out to — gulp — 3 a.m. PDT). Seven divisions will head west down the Solent toward the Needles. The live stream will run 10:30-1 p.m. BST. Commentators will include Pip Hare, Abby Ehler, Matt Sheahan, Louay Habib and Simon Vigar.
Watch on the race website at www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en, on RORC’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/rorcracing, or on RORC’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/RoyalOceanRacingClub. Here’s the entry list: www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/follow/follow-the-race/entrylists.
Are any other West Coast sailors participating? Feel free to comment in the section below.
There were other Bay Area sailors Heinz Baumann and Raffi Baumann (both RYC) planned to sail the Fastnet but due to COVID our campaign hat to forfeit the race. We will try again in 2 years.
Nice job US! To the 7 returning sailors and US team going back in 2024…push hard and get the US back as medal contenders and win some gold!!