The Rio learning curve
Written by Stuart Bithell | 29 July 2014
My first impressions of Rio were not at all what I was expecting!
We arrived at 7pm, it was pitch black, it was raining and I asked Pinky in the bus how many jumpers he had packed as it was certainly a fair bit cooler than I had anticipated! I thought it would be a lot hotter here and also completely overlooked the fact that it gets dark so early. It was a bit weird leaving a lovely British summer and coming out to a not so lovely rainy Rio winter – but I think it’s due to get a lot better for the rest of the week so we’ll see the sun a bit more hopefully.
Certainly I feel comfortable in the close team environment we have out here and John does as well. He doesn’t have any direct Olympic experience but he’s very mature within the squad so between us we’ve got some good things going. We’re now two years out from the Olympics, myself and John teamed up in November so we’re still relatively new. Even though we have a lot of experience between us, our learning curve together is still quite steep, which is good and we’re very happy to have made the team to be here, which is all part of the ladder on the way to the Games in 2016.
We qualified to get out here amongst a very strong British squad so that was brilliant. We’re still learning every day we go sailing together, we have a great coaching system at the moment which has enabled us to really see progression at every event which is fantastic – and it needs to be because there are a couple of guys in our fleet who are fairly dominant at the minute and there’s some ground to be made on those guys. But it’s all very positive, individually and as a team.
John’s sailed the 49er for quite a while, so he’s got very good knowledge of kit – he knows what good kit is, and what fast kit is and all the settings as well. I bring my athleticism – you have to be quite fit as a crew – but it’s also good to have two tactical brains on board and that’s an area that we see is an advantage we have over other teams in the fleet. Hopefully by the end we’ll be very strong, fast and smart team.
Looking back to London 2012, there’s no question that having lived in Weymouth for a good few years before and having sailed there a lot was massive advantage and certainly made you feel comfortable with what you were going to experience at the Olympics. Exactly the same goes for Rio I think – the more time we spend out here, the more times we see bad luck and good luck, and you learn that that’s not luck, that’s actually the venue geography and stuff like that. It’s great to be here and the more times the merrier as far as I’m concerned.
Before I came here, I’d heard a lot of chat about the water, and I was expecting worse. It’s seemed fairly OK so far. There are a lot of bags and the odd branch and twigs, but you get that in all sorts of tidal venues where the tide’s pushing things together. The race area is also a lot smaller than I was expecting, having looked at Google Earth before we came out. It’s very much more like a little lake in its shape and size, kind of like what I learned to sail in up at Hollingworth!
This trip, for our first time in Rio, we’re trying to gain a lot of feel for the venue – not just on the water but in terms of the hotel, the food and so on. On water it’s about learning the tides and the wind. As an outcome we have set this event as one we want to do well in – top five is what we’ve set for ourselves although a medal is always nice. It’s good to show you’ve got medal potential in the Olympic venue, but our main goal this year is Santander and the World Championships at the end of September. That’s what we’ve tailored most of our season towards.
Being from Manchester, I’m obviously a big football fan so our trip to the Maracana on Sunday night was fantastic. It’s a really cool stadium. It’s interesting watching football teams you don’t know much about, but there’s no question that the home fans certainly made for a great atmosphere. The Brazilians absolutely love their football so it was a great experience, and great to have a look around where the Opening and Closing ceremonies for 2016 will be and I’m sure with a packed stadium like that in a couple of years’ time it will be fantastic.
I’m not too sure it would top a home first Olympics for me personally, but it would be absolutely amazing to go to another Olympics in a different class. That would be some life achievement.