2013 is looming… and I can’t wait!
Written by Stephen Park | 20 December 2012
I am writing this blog as I fly home from Rio de Janeiro, where I have been for a few days with a small group of the team, trying to tie up plans for the training and regattas that will precede the coming 2016 Olympic Games.
It is a fantastic venue, with an incredible landscape backdrop that will make for excellent television pictures, provided there is good wind.
I am reflecting on the year, and remembering that it is almost a year to the day that I was returning from the 2011 Perth Worlds which, despite a fantastic Skandia Team GBR performance, dominated the headlines as a result of Ben Ainslie's altercation with a press boat. The matter has been discussed at length and I don't propose to revisit it, but it puts a smile on my face to think that since then, Ben won the World Championships and an Olympic Gold medal in the Finn class to become the most successful Olympic sailor in history. A year is a short time in high performance sport!
A Glorious Sporting Year
As 2012 comes to a close we are able to reflect on what by any standards has been a glorious sporting year. The London 2012 Games were a huge success, inspiring the nation, providing the world with a first class example of how to put on the Greatest Show on Earth, and with Team GB and ParalympicsGB both returning with enough medals to place us 3rd on the medal table at both Games.
For the fourth Games in a row, the GB Sailing Team added 5 medals to the Team GB tally, taking the team’s total since Sydney 2000 to 21 of which 10 have been gold. Our Paralympic sailors laid their 2008 demons to rest and delivered the goods this time around with medals in both the 2.4mR & the SKUD 18. Once again, sailing has been able to show that it is amongst the top performing and most consistent sports in the country.
But it was not all plain sailing. I am proud of the performances of our sailors this summer. I truly believe we fielded the most competitive team in each one of the 10 Olympic and three Paralympic classes ever. Each one of our sailors had results in the run in to the Games to prove they were realistic medal contenders. Of course, we know that you often need to be better that good to win regattas, and in the 2012 Games we certainly seemed to struggle for our share of luck. But we also must remember that the more you practice the luckier you get, so there is no point in reviewing each class and where we were lucky or not. Ultimately, we won medals in half the Olympic classes and two-thirds of the Paralympic classes, and if we had been offered that in July we would have been pretty keen to take it. Unfortunately however, with so many talented sailors, with so much potential, many were left feeling they should have done better.
It is this dissatisfaction with anything other than a gold medal that keeps the team driving on, never being satisfied from one Games to the next.
The Road to Rio begins...
As we look to 2013, there is much to be excited about. There has been an incredible amount of activity in the new mixed multihull and the 49erFX classes as sailors form new partnerships, and try to learn new skills. Across the double-handed classes we are seeing new partnerships forming and in all classes and we are seeing Development Squad sailors jostling for positions in the Performance programme training sessions.
We have had a brief, but enjoyable, foray into the world of kiteboarding for a few months, before ISAF reinstated the RS:X windsurfer to the 2016 Olympic programme. It was disappointing on one hand to see the kites relocated after such a huge amount of work had been undertaken to understand the game for 2016, only then to see the Olympic aspirations of new kiteboarders deflated. On the other hand, it was nice to see the return of the windsurfers and the re-inspiration of all the hopes of the young up-and-coming windsurfers that have been training for years with their eyes set on Olympic medals. It will be interesting to see what happens in four years’ time when the classes for 2020 come under consideration, and I have a funny feeling that we haven't seen the last of the kiteboarders.
In 2013 we will also be seeing the introduction of various new regatta series formats being trialled before a final ISAF decision is made on the plan for the 2016 Games itself. It is likely that we will see shorter regattas, more races per day, where sailors will compete in semi-finals and finals from as early as day three of the competition. There also appears to be a move to increase the number of medal races for each class on the final day of competition... there is talk of three double points races for the top ten boats at the end of competition. All of this is going to change the way sailors race, the way we know the sport now, but hopefully it will lead to a successful outcome that increases the spectator appeal of the sport while retaining sailor skill and talent, rather than luck and good fortune as the determining factors of Olympic medals.
There is plenty to get excited about as we begin the journey to Rio in earnest, and the British Sailing Team plan to ensure that we are stronger in 2016 than ever before and challenging for the top step of the podium in every event. The clock is ticking, and the Olympic Games will be back upon us before we know it. I can't wait!
Merry Christmas to you all, and thank you for your continued support!
Sparky