US Sailing Names New High Performance Director

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Dear fellow US Sailing Member,

I am proud to announce to you – our most valued US Sailing members – that US Sailing has named Marcus Lynch, an accomplished professional sailor athlete, coach, and Olympic performance manager, as our new High Performance Director. Beginning in January, Lynch will lead the US Sailing Team and all its associated high‐performance programs, including the US Olympic Sailing Team, the Pan American Sailing Team, and the Olympic Development Sailing Program.

Personally, I am thrilled to announce that our top candidate for our High-Performance Director has accepted the role. You will find him engaging, thoughtful, and empathetic, but really focused on accountability of the entire team, from athletes to Board of Directors, to perform at the highest level.

Lynch, who has been involved in professional sailing since 2000, served as a full-time athlete for the British Sailing Team in the Tornado Class from 2000-2008, then as a consultant from 2008 to 2016, where he coordinated the British Sailing Teams Paralympic training and preparation activities in Rio ahead of the 2016 Paralympic Games where the British Sailing Team secured a Bronze Medal in both the 2.4 and Skud. After the Rio 2016 Games, Lynch joined the German Sailing Team as the Olympic Performance Coach for the Nacra 17, securing the Bronze Medal at the Tokyo Olympics 2021. In 2019, Lynch became the Olympic Performance Manager, and in 2021 the German Sailing Team had their most successful Olympic Performance in over two decades, securing the Silver Medal in the Fx, the Bronze Medal in the 49er, and the Bronze Medal in the Nacra 17 at Tokyo 2021 Games. In addition to his Olympic and Paralympic Roles, Lynch has a wealth of coaching experience in professional sailing circuits such as SailGP and the former extreme sailing series, giving a broad and unique perspective across sailboat racing.

I would like to thank Sarah Lihan and Henry Brauer who have overseen the team during this interim period, the many athletes, staff, and volunteers who contributed to the search process, and the steadfast Olympic staff and coaches for their commitment to the athletes.

I am proud to bring you this very exciting news, and invite you to read our official announcement, which will be posted later today at www.ussailing.org.

With this critical piece of our plan in place I’m really looking forward to Marseille next summer and building on our spectacular success in the recent Pan Am Games. We have medal chances in several classes – it’s an exciting time!

With deep respect,

Rich Jepsen
Board President
US Sailing
richardjepsen@ussailing.org