World Cup fever and 'winter' training in Rio
Written by Nick Dempsey | 19 June 2014
From the familiarity of racing in Weymouth and Portland, to the relative unknown of Rio – my coach Barrie and I flew out to Brazil straight out after the Sail for Gold Regatta for our first proper training at the 2016 venue.
I have been to Rio before for a short event, but it’s a different time of year now so it does feel very different. We came in January before when there was actually a little bit of wind and it was really hot at 40 degrees, whereas now it’s actually quite pleasant at around 25 degrees but there’s not an awful lot of wind so it’s quite different to my previous impressions of the place. And being winter right now here in Rio, it gets dark at 5 o’clock – yet it still feels like summer to me, so that’s pretty strange!
I’m training out here with Ricardo Santos – Bimba – who’s been part of my training group for a number of years now. There’s me and him and another young Brazilian guy, Gabriel. The book is pretty open when we train together and we’re very honest with each other – we put it all on the table and we race hard against each other. Every day is flat out with Bimba and I battling away, which is perfect and exactly what you want in training.
Barrie and I do get on really well, but we’re staying in dorm-type accommodation here so it’s all a bit close and the internet’s not very good which makes Baz pretty tetchy when he’s trying to work! It’s good that with Bimba we’ve got someone we can go places with and get on with after sailing as well, which is nice for both of us.
Training has been pretty hard out here. We’re up and cycling from 6am-8am, and then sailing from around 1pm to 4pm working the venue out, looking at the tide, wind and general patterns, plus some technique to suit the racecourse. It’s a very tricky place to sail, and it’s full on with a lot of light wind work, stacks of intervals and lots of sweat!
In case you hadn’t noticed, Brazil is hosting the World Cup right now and although I'm not the biggest football fan, I do love the World Cup. And what better place to be to catch the atmosphere than Rio?! I even met Gary Lineker at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain after a pretty epic climb up – by me, not him I should say. He caught the cable car!
It's the people that make the big tournaments and to watch Brazil in Brazil is wicked. I seem to be rooting for Brazil, I don't know why! We watched the Brazil-Mexico game at the Torben Grael’s sailing club, which is a really amazing club with great people. We had a BBQ and were made to feel very welcome. It's great to experience the atmosphere of the event and I hope the Brazilians get just as excited about the Olympics when it comes.
We’ll be back here for the first Olympic Test Event in August, which is a massive part of learning about the venue as we build towards 2016. I would like to do well at that event, but we'll see if I'm ready to race at the front of the fleet. My form seems good and getting better, but this year will be hard. After taking some time off towards the end of last year I am very much on the catch up especially in terms of fitness. But it's going well and we'll see where I'm at in five weeks. The Santander Worlds in September remains my main performance event, but the Test Event is also important in the bigger picture towards 2016.
There’s been a lot of chat in the media about the water quality here in Rio, I often get asked about it when I’m interviewed and I’m sure that it will continue to be a discussion between now and the Games. I can say it’s pretty horrible right now, but it’s where the game is and it’s the same for all of us. I just hope that something will be done to clean it up – not just for us as athletes, but it would be nice for the Olympics to make a change for the better and leave a lasting legacy for the local people. A cleaner bay would do that.
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