Zack: Nice analysis, & I think you really hit the sweet spot by identifying the weakness of a quasi European training system. (Euro sailing is built around Club racing, identifying potential prospects collecting them into a National team & training till the elite float to the top). While this system can work it doesn’t cater to bringing out individualism in promoting the good decision making qualities necessary to eliminate the mistakes that drive one back to deep in the fleet. Winning is basically about who makes the least mistakes from bad decisions, be it life, business, war, or sport. Very akin to taking a test in school. Any school boy or girl can tell you what it takes to “ace “ test in school whether they be a 1st grader or upperclassman. To get a 100 on a test you have to Think, Decide, & Act to get all the correct answers. Every error in decision making drives you further down the results curve. So “Winning” is really about accumulating least mistakes wherever one is being tested. Even the first grader can tell you that to get an “A” one has to be better prepared than anyone else, & be the one who makes the least mistakes. As an aside, most Jrs. I interact with when they don’t do well, I ask them what they did to prepare for the regatta will tell me that they just “showed up”. So if it can be seen that ”winning” is mostly about good decision making & eliminating “mistakes” (be it: selecting coach, boat, sail, training venue/program , fitness program, diet, etc. let alone decisions on race course), focusing on eliminating mistakes should be a prime priority. College & now H.S. sailing understood this from its inception in mid ‘30’s. Lots of VERY short races, NO throw outs, means slightest mistake will drive one back into field with no chance to catch-up. 4 yrs of this format of racing with 100s of races where Thinking, good Decision & Acting on the Decisions in a changing environment can only teach that error free racing is what it takes to win. It is all about being better prepared than competitors. See OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide Act) Loop thesis by John Boyd. Having a Trials end ¾ of a year before an event is incomprehensible. What student would stop studying/preparing even days before Finals, SAT’s, LCAT’S? Up till Trials, I would be very surprised if there was any willingness among competitors to share info. After Trials if the path chosen was to have extended open period, agree there must be very intense preparation with training partner(s) to ramp up skills to highest level. But I think this is a path ill trodden. Better to have intense competition among rivals to elevate winner to top of his game. To be the best you have to sail against the best on a day to day basis to know how far to the right side of the “Bell Curve” you have to be to “own” the Class. Having early Trials would seem to eliminate any motive to improve. As far as carping excuses by some that short course college style racing isn’t compatible with training for Olympic style racing. This is just an excuse with little basis by those seeking to cover their accumulated mistakes with throw outs(s). Long races are lost by having more time to accumulate more mistakes. Long races demand a higher level of physical fitness & a thorough understand of wind patterns to stay in phase with more & more shifts & should be part of the decision process while preparing. In any case winner of long race will still be the one with least # of accumulated mistakes. Of course a well designed hybrid training program could be developed too. FYI, some years ago I saw the need for the USA to have a Pre-Olympic training Regatta a la C.O.R.K. & brought the concept to sailors in the Miami & St Pete area. Charley Morgan (SPYC) & Peter Commette ran with concept & S.P.O.R.T. and O.R.C. came to be. Then it seemed that a dedicated training center & pipeline for prepping promising youth sailors & those needing a out of season all year around training facility with accompanying high level coaching should be available in place of the remote Association Island venue. After talking to Ding Schoonmaker, he got behind the idea & made it happen. Unfortunately, those subsequently running the facility failed to understand the mission statement & turned the facility into a “dead boat park” as source of revenue. If there had been a good understanding of the proper use of the facility, it would have been oversubscribed hosting Jr. & Sr. clinics to ramp up jrs. to be better prepared for college sailing & Srs. To be better prepared for international competition by best coaching available worldwide, & incidentally vetting & training potential Jr. & Olympic coaches. This could still be done but would take a major commitment & World Class Coach in charge of the venue with proper mandate & budget. E.g. Mark Ivey or perhaps Andy Zawieja, or any other of # of well proven coaches w/o an agenda. If this were to happen the Sailing Center in Miami would soon be self sustaining & able to attract Grants & 401k donations. The Board of Directors should be selected by those who support & understand the Centers Training Mandate & audit the performance of the Sailing Director/Head Coach. -Bill
Blog
US Olympic Sailing strategy should be "You play the way you practice."
Zach: One of the first lessons athletes learn is “You play the way you practice.” The opportunities to practice in Olympic-class boats in the US are limited, probably because the pipeline you refer to is not being filled by the organization that will ultimately use the best US sailors in the next Olympics. The pipeline should include events at US venues that attract the best competitors — both US and foreign. A higher level of competition at home will make US sailors more competitive abroad. Good luck to you and Fred in Rio in 2016!
Maybe Olympic sailing should sail as amateurs
Those of us who race here and are finding it hard to go to regattas in our home areas (Chesapeake Bay in my case) because of the dismal economy , find it difficult to have sympathy for the failure of professional sailors abroad at public expense. We’d simply like to afford to sail a few more regattas here. Never mind America. I’d like to sail for myself.
Olympic Sailing
Interesting Analysis!!! Seems hard to isolate/quantify all the variables, but you took some nice steps!
olympics sailing
Zach: All great points especially the peaking too early. I agree there is a ton of talent out there (as evidenced by the 100+ laser radials that sailed at BBR this past weekend) but we do need a better way for the right sailors to be identified and then put into the pipeline. MOney, unfortunately, is everything and which such a gap between money spent by teams such as Britain and France is it realistic to think that a country that spends only 3-4 million can complete?
What’s Wrong in Weymouth? By Airwaves Writer Zach Brown
Editors Note: We would like to welcome Zach Brown as our newest member to the Airwaves team. Please look for his column here often on Sail1Design’s Airwaves Newsletter. You can read Zach’s bio a the bottom of this article. Please use our comment feature at the bottom of the article also to share your thoughts, here, on Airwaves.
The 2012 Olympics are coming to a close, leaving American sailors scratching their heads in astonishment wondering what happened in Weymouth. We sent our best sailors, many of whom had strong international results leading up to the Games, and yet the United States walked away without a single medal—something that hasn’t happened since 1936.
We are incredibly proud of our athletes, and we know they gave it their all. There is no denying that, given another regatta, the final team results would have been different. This is not a finger-pointing political debate. This article is not to question the talent or efforts of our best; it is an inquiry as to what happened and what we can do to ensure that this cycle’s mistakes aren’t repeated in Rio. We can roll over, put our heads in the sand and try to forget this happened, or we can turn the disappointment into a positive movement to revamp our Olympic sailing efforts.
Why did a country with a strong history of winning medals walk away empty handed? The team peaked too early, spent too much time at the regatta site, and had unrealistic expectations in the modern era of sport. What must we do to change this and guarantee our country medals going forward? Create a stronger pipeline of development and increase funding to compete against the countries with budgets three to five times larger than our own.
Peaking Too Early
The US Olympic sailing trials process for 2012 caused the team to peak too early and forced those who didn’t qualify to drop out prematurely. The trials system was revolutionary in a positive way compared to past qualifiers. For all classes but the Women’s Match Race, the trials system combined the overall finish of Weymouth’s Sail For Gold event in 2011 and the 2011 ISAF Worlds in Perth. Both venues provided conditions similar to those in the Games, and thereby selected athletes with the most skill in those conditions. The problem was, the trials finished eight months before the Games began while most other countries included the 2012 spring ISAF World Cup events as part of their qualification process.
The medalless finish in Weymouth could have been avoided if the trials were extended closer to the actual Games. The rivalries that ended after Perth in December 2011 could have pushed the Olympic team harder and forced everyone to peak later. From a development standpoint, a later trials would have given more experience to the greener teams looking ahead to the 2016, while keeping more experienced teams hungry and in the saddle.
Too Much Time in Weymouth
If Weymouth was a beautiful location with warmer weather and less rain, this point would be moot, but spending too much time there is downright depressing. The cold temperature that doesn’t usually exceed 60 °F, the constant cloud cover, and the frequent rain make Weymouth a difficult place to spend extended periods of time. The US team spent more time in Weymouth over the last year than almost every country. What seemed like a smart approach to get used to the conditions and practice routines might have backfired due to the taxing environment of Weymouth.
Unrealistic Expectations
The results in Weymouth were not failures, but more of a mismatch of expectations. Sail boat racing has gone global and become more competitive around the world. Sailing began as an Olympic sport in Paris 1900, with 5 countries taking home 21 medals. Weymouth 2012 will feature 63 nations, competing for 30 medals. Crunching some numbers, it’s easy to see the ratio of the number of countries winning medals versus the total of medals up-for-grabs has increased over the last few Olympics.
For one reason or another, expectations set for the 2012 US Olympic Team were out of touch with reality. When a comparison is made between the US athletes’ results in Weymouth and their record at major events over the last year and a half, the statistics quantify that seven out of ten classes performed equal to or better at the Games than their average final positions at the events preceding. The US was simply not that well-positioned to take home a slew of medals in Weymouth. If the team had had a strong event, they had a chance to win three or four medals, but under the challenging conditions that prevailed, there were no medals.
Create a Better Pipeline
There is plenty of discussion about training the next generation of Olympians: How do we connect the Olympic pipeline to youth sailing? Where does college sailing fit in? What boats should be used in the development stages? These questions focus too much on the early stages of development; our attention should be directed towards supporting athletes who commit to campaigns. Why don’t we have a squad of at least three boats per Olympic class attending ISAF World Cup events? Most countries have at least two, if not four teams in each class at every international event. The Danish, British, and Germans had seven or more boats at almost every ISAF World Cup event in Europe in 2012 in the 49er. Looking at the US in 2012, six out of the ten classes had only one team competing in Europe this spring. Early Olympic trials contributed to this, but the greatest factor was the lack of support for teams campaigning for future Games.
The US Sailing staff encourages a team dynamic, but does not force it. The change needs to happen at the top with responsibility placed on the coaches for total class development, not individual achievement. Each Olympic class needs to have a database of proprietary information for any new team to step into a 470, laser, or 49er and know exactly how to set up the boat in each wind condition and be competitive. Videos and photos of training should be available with written notes for any newcomer to access and accelerate his/her learning curve. Once the machine is set up, it will run smoothly on its own. As the team gets stronger and more competitive, there will be less need to travel to Europe, which will reduce the cost of entry for any newcomer.
Increase Funding
We are fighting an unfair battle against other countries because our Olympic sailing budget is significantly smaller than other lower ranking per capita to GDP countries. The British have somewhere between three and five times the Olympic sailing budget of the United States. Competing at the Olympic level requires an incredible amount of money. Budgets range from $70,000 to $200,000 a year.
The US can fold under the defeat of 2012, or we can turn around and pile in the resources we need to guarantee we never go medalless again. The US Olympic Committee that oversees all sports may pull its funding for sailing. It is up to us to keep that from happening. It is up to us to support our athletes.
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The graph below comes from the ISAF Olympic Page
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC SAILING MEDAL TALLY
| Country | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Sweden | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| China, PR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Denmark | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Cyprus | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Finland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Poland | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Brazil | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
About the Author: ([email protected])
Born and raised in San Diego, Zach was introduced to the sport of sailing by his parents who sailed catamarans in Southern California.
He fell in love with water sports and first started sailing at the age of 7. He had much success in junior sailing with victories in various boats. He was a Pram National Champion in 2001, a US Youth Champion in the 420 in 2003, a high school sailing A-division champion in 2003, and a 2 time Youth World representative for the US in 2003 and 2004.
Zach continued his sailing success at Yale University by receiving College Sailing All-American honors all four years. He led the team as captain in the 2007/2008 season and helped Yale achieve multiple top three finishes at nationals. He graduated Yale in 2008 with a double major in history and economics. Zach focused his efforts towards team racing directly after college taking the Hinman US National Championship title in 2009, the British Open Championship in 2010 and 2011, and placed second at the Team Race World Championship in 2011.
Realizing his dream of representing the US at the Olympics is now, Zach has transferred all his efforts to crewing in the Olympic Class 49er. Choosing the 49er for its speed, difficulty, and fun, Zach started sailing the boat in 2009. Zach and his teammate Fred Strammer began their campaign in 2011 with the goal of a gold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. He and Fred are confident that their passion, dedication, and hard work will pay off as they train full time for five years to earn the United States a medal. To learn more about their Olympic campaign in the 49er, check out their site at www.OURROADTORIO.com.
