Team USA’s Hans Henken and Ian Barrows Capture Olympic Bronze

In a nail-biting finish that wasn’t over until the last jibe, just ahead of the Swiss and British at the line, the American 49er team of California’s Hans Henken and Ian Barrows captured the 2024 Paris Olympics bronze medal. The USA medal drought has been excruciating, and in today’s Men’s Skiff final it took Henken/Barrows the entire race of fighting and clawing to finally break through and claim a place finish for the bronze.

After yesterday’s postponement of two attempted races, racing commenced this morning in a moderate nine- to 11-knot breeze in front of a packed seawall in Marseille, France, with Team USA starting the day in fourth place. It took a mistake by Ireland, over the line early, to open the door for the Americans. It wasn’t easy, but they sailed brilliantly.

“Ian and I have been training for the past five years for this and we knew our chances were to go for bronze or silver,” Henken said. “Putting ourselves in medal contention and going into that last race was what we wanted.

“A lot of things had to go our way, but we also had to execute at the highest level and we were able to get both today, and that feels amazing,” Henken exclaimed. “We had an excellent start; you can’t ask for anything better, going full speed. We had to defend the Swiss all the way to the finish line, which wasn’t easy to do.”

This is the US Sailing Team’s first Olympic medal in sailing since Caleb Paine’s bronze in Rio in 2016.

“I’m speechless; I still can’t believe it,” Barrows said. “I’m really happy, especially for Hans as he’s been doing this for a really long time. Our team is amazing and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of them.”

“We put in so much hard work to get here and to have it all come together in this last race is just amazing,” Henken said. “Ian and I had the goal of having a chance in the medal race — we knew that’s a level that we had. Just to be there felt like an achievement in its own right, and to finish with this bronze medal is really the cherry on top.”

For the final race of the Paris Olympics, the pair started toward the pin end of the starting line, securing their choice of the left side for the first upwind. Their close rivals, Dickson and Waddilove of Ireland, were OCS and forced to return to the starting line, which opened the door for Barrows and Henken to inch closer to the bronze medal position.

Staying close to the front of the fleet, Barrows/Henken rounded the first upwind mark in sixth. They put the pedal to the metal on the downwind, playing a great leg and picking up two boats, closing the gap with the Swiss. They stayed close to the Swiss on the second upwind, overtaking them at a close mark rounding and soaring into fourth for the last race.

Spain’s Diego Botin and Florián Trittel fulfilled a lifelong dream by mastering the Men’s Skiff to become Olympic champions. The Spanish pair sailed impressively throughout the regatta, finishing atop the Opening Series by a narrow five-point margin.

Botin recently captured SailGP’s championship for Season 4 in San Francisco and had not won an individual race heading into the decisive Medal Race. But Botin and Trittel saved their best for last, dominating the fleet in an exceptional show on the water to cross the line first.

“It’s a dream come true. After years of putting the work in with the best team, with our families here, it doesn’t get any better,” Botin said.

“Staying focused has been one of the key factors for these two days of trying to get the Medal Race in,” added Trittel. “We knew what we wanted, which was to do the best Medal Race we could, to win that gold medal. That made us stay very focused; we had a clear game plan and I think we managed to execute it almost perfectly.”

New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie wrapped up the silver medal with an important third-place finish in the Medal Race.

There is still much more sailing in Marseille over the next few days, especially for Lafayette Park’s Daniela Moroz as she looks for gold in Kite Sailing’s Olympic debut.

Editors’ Note:

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