“I was relieved to have officially qualified for the Olympics,” writes Formula Kiteboard champion Daniela Moroz on her excellent and brutally honest blog post. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life, and it’s crazy to think it’s officially happening – I’m going to be an Olympian. Insane.”

But now comes the hard part. The final push to Marseilles. “There is a lot of work to be done in the next year leading up to the Games,” she writes. “For me, the most important thing will be to keep my head in the right place… there is no off season, no official time where you can recover and disconnect from the job. We think we have to keep training all year, which is completely unsustainable and leads to burnout…

“One of my biggest areas of improvement is gaining weight, so I will be working closely with our awesome team of US Sailing Team trainers based just outside of Miami. I truly believe that following this path will still put out net gains for my Olympic sailing because it will re-spark my fire for the sport. My mission is still clear: the goal is gold, and I’m ready to do everything I can to deliver a winning performance at the 2024 Olympic Games.”

Moroz knows next summer’s Olympic Regatta is not only her first shot at the sport’s first medal, but it could very well be her one and only shot given the emotional and physical drain this campaign has put her through over the past several years at the top of the fleet. There is an underlining urgency in her blog and an honest plea for financial support, which does not come readily from US Olympic coffers. I encourage you to read her latest writing in which she shares the tumultuous experience of her Olympic qualification. She is a legitimate best-medal hopeful for the US Sailing Team, an inspirational sailor that deserves our recognition and support, so let’s all chip in what we can to help her soar to the podium (a GoFundMe pages is now live as well). It’s what she was born to do. The following conversation was recorded at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in Chicago in June ahead of her qualification and published in the Fall 2023 edition of Sailing World Magazine.

—Dave Reed

Born to Soar

There’s a reason why Daniela Moroz, the six-time kiteboard world champion and four-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, is always quick to flash a radiant smile. Happiness comes easy for the 22-year-old foiling phenom from San Francisco, which most certainly has something to do with her parents, her upbringing on, in and now above the water, and the fact that she actually enjoys her training as she pushes ever closer to the Formula Kite’s Olympic debut. “I love pushing myself, and I love seeing how far I can go and how well I can perform,” she says. At the moment, she is performing as expected: fast and faster. In Marseille, France, on the very waters of next year’s Olympic regatta, she won a bronze medal in July and locked in her US Sailing Team spot. All that remains is to qualify the US, and from there it’s straight to the big stage.

Most sailors have likely never watched a kiteboard race. How does it go?

It is course racing, just like what everyone else does in sailing. It’s windward-leeward courses, and it’s a three-minute start sequence. Instead of having an hour- or half-hour-long race, our races are only about 12 to 15 minutes in qualifying [races]. And then eight to 10 minutes in the medal races. It’s really fast. I learned recently that it’s actually the fastest Summer Olympic sport, which is pretty cool. Upwind we’re going 20 to 25 knots, and downwind we’re pushing into the high 30s pretty comfortably. If you want to go fast, it’s a great class to get into. The equipment is unique, and it’s very dynamic and exciting. I always loved going fast, so that was a big thing that pulled me into it.

Describe a typical starting approach; it must be madness with all the kites hovering overhead in one ­confined area.

It’s similar to regular sailing in that you still have your starting routine—do a few line checks, get a transit, check what side of the course has more wind. Then you’re fighting for position on the line and trying not to come off the foil that whole time. There are kites everywhere and RIBs—there’s a lot going on. Once you start, it’s amazing. I always feel like those first 30 seconds are always so interesting because, while holding a lane, there’s this moment of silence where I get into the flow, and I’m going 20 to 25 knots upwind, and I’m trying to see where I can tack out. Everything is happening at such a fast pace.

What’s the key to being able to hold that lane?

Hiking, which sounds weird for kiting, but that’s what I’m doing. I can be holding up to 120 kilos of load on the board, which transfers into my legs. So, it’s kind of like holding a squat or a wall sit for several minutes upwind. And I just heel over as much as possible. I’m managing all of the power of the kite and kind of putting it into the harness and feeling every little movement to try to point higher and go faster. I’m trying to get the vector from the kite to the board to be as close to 180 degrees as possible.

From there, what are the ­tactical fundamentals you have to play out while also managing the kite, the foil, and the rest of the fleet?

Speed helps. As always, it’s nice to have a speed edge. When I’m sending into the left corner off the start, I’m always trying to see what my options are. There’s a lot to manage, and I have to get into the flow right away and be conscious of what I’m thinking about and make sure I’m thinking about the right things. In kiting, there’s so much feel that goes into it. The longer you’ve been kiting, the better your field is and the better your reaction times will be to anything that happens with the kite and the foil. The kite and board have to be an extension of your body because you have to be so in sync with it to be able to go fast.

When you started competing in international events and won your first Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year (in 2016 at the age of 15, the youngest winner ever), the field was tiny—no more than a dozen female competitors. But now the numbers and the competitive field are enormous. It’s amazing to think you’ve been at the tip of this spear for so long.

Yeah, it’s really interesting because there’s all these established Olympic sailing classes that have been around ­forever, so when it comes to the Olympics, there’s kind of a formula. With kiteboarding, we don’t know what the pathway is, and we have to figure it out.

You’ve said recently that your technique is sound, but your next hurdles are the ­equipment and your weight.

I’ve been kiting for pretty much half of my life now, so my technique is pretty good, my feel is really good, and my boathandling is good. But now it’s a matter of figuring out how to make the most gains and improvements with the equipment. For each regatta, we can have four kites that are different sizes—usually 9, 11, 15 and 21 square meters. We can register only one foil for the whole regatta. I’ve never really been a technical person, and I always blame myself before blaming any of my gear, but now I really have to be more technical and have confidence in my skills and my technique. I know what a fast kite should feel like, and I know how a good foil should feel.

What does a fast kite feel like?

It’s impossible to describe. It just feels good, and it just takes you where you want to go.

What about the weight—is it more advantageous to be heavy or light?

As with almost any foiling discipline, weight is important. In kiting, weight is righting moment, so I’m trying to get as heavy as possible. But it’s hard because I want to feel good and I want to feel strong, fit, agile and athletic, but then I also need to be heavy to just be able to go with that. It’s been an interesting mental challenge because I want to have confidence in my body and what I’m able to do, but it’s not always super easy to do that when you know what our sport demands. It’s an interesting balance, but my goal is to be competing for a medal at the Games, and I’m going to do everything I can that’s in my power to do that.

You’ve been transparent about your burnout a few years ago. What happened?

At the end of the 2019 racing season, I was just starting college and able to take some time off and focus on that. But when I got back on the water and back into kite racing, I didn’t feel that fire in me anymore. It was weird because for so many years all I wanted to do was go kite and go shred and have fun on the water. Suddenly, that desire wasn’t there anymore. That’s not normal. That’s not who I am. When COVID happened and all of the 2020 racing season was canceled, I took six months off, and I remember being at a certain point where I didn’t even want to look at my race gear—I didn’t even let myself keep it in the car so I didn’t even have to think about it. It was probably the best thing I could have done for myself at this point because it had taken this weird toll on me where I didn’t want to do it anymore. The thought of going kiting was so unappealing, which was a really weird feeling to have.

What got you back on track?

I eventually realized kiting is all I’ve really been doing with my life for six years and I needed to have something besides kiting. Because as much as we love sailing and we love foiling, it is not everything in life. You also need to be happy in order to perform, you need to be enjoying what you’re doing, and you need to be connected with your sport and with nature and with what you’re doing. So, I got a Moth.

The vagabond pro-kiter lifestyle must be pretty attractive. You get to play and live in some amazing waters and venues.

Last year, I spent maybe 40 days at home. I’m on the road most of the year. There are downsides to that, but I always remember that I really, really love what I’m doing. And when it comes down to it, I love going out and training actually, and I love pushing myself, and I love seeing how far I can go and how well I can perform. So, I always remind myself that I’m super lucky to get to do this and to even do something I love so much. We get to experience the world in such a unique way that few people get to experience.

Speaking of experiences, what is your top speed to date?

It was around 38 knots—a burst in a bear away, but not before a wipeout.

The post US Olympic Sailing’s Daniela Moroz Is On the Verge appeared first on Sailing World.

A long ten days of competition at the Allianz Sailing World Championships came to a close in The Hague, The Netherlands, with the ILCA 6 Medal Race, where US Sailing Team’s Charlotte Rose secured fifth overall, a personal career best in the Olympic class ILCA 6.

Rose had nothing to lose going into the Medal Race. Entering in fifth overall, she’d managed to put enough points between her and sixth place Emma Plasschaert of Belgium, so the only way she could go was up the leaderboard. With all points in play above her, Rose sailed an aggressive final race in very light conditions on the North Sea. She rounded the leeward gate in fifth and ultimately dropped back to ninth to close out the race, but stood by her decisions to try mostly anything and give it her all.

“My main goal was to make the medal race, so to finish fifth means the world to me. This is a new personal best,” said Rose, the two-time Youth Worlds Gold Medalist in the ILCA 6 now making her way up the Olympic class circuit. “It feels really great to qualify the United States for the Olympic Games and to represent the US on the world stage here. The best part of Worlds was being able to close my season on a good note and handle all the conditions I faced this week. It was stressful for sure. I’m happy to have some time off now to reset for the 2024 Worlds in January and the Olympic Trials in Miami.”

In addition to the ILCA 6 berth, the US Sailing Team USA qualified for Paris 2024 in the 49er with top finishes by Andrew Mollerus and Ian MacDiarmid and Ian Barrows, as well as Ian Barrows and Hans Henken. Steph Roble & Maggie Shea locked in the team’s 49erFX berth and Daniela Moroz finished fifth in the Women’s Formula Kite to earn her ticket to Marseilles.

The next opportunity to qualify the United States in the remaining classes is the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile October 28 – November 5.

The post US Sailors Secure Four Team Berths for Olympic Regatta appeared first on Sailing World.

Final Results for 2023 Marseille Olympic Sailing Test Event

Two race wins in two classes kicked off a great week for the US Sailing Team at the Paris 2024 Test Event in Marseille, France. Now 375 days out from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the USA Team is leaving Marseille with invaluable racing experience on future Olympic waters in a high-pressure scenario. Athletes and staff are returning home with heightened knowledge of weather characteristics on the five course areas, increased familiarity with venue logistics, and dialed-in operations routines.

Daniela Moroz secured both a bronze medal at the future Olympic venue and her nomination to Team USA for the Paris 2024 Games in the Women’s Formula Kite, per US Sailing’s Selection Procedures. With the first step to Paris checked off her list, Moroz will now turn her attention to qualifying the USA for a Paris 2024 spot in the Women’s Formula Kite at the Sailing World Championships in The Hague, The Netherlands from August 10-20. 

“The goal this week was getting on the podium to secure the Team USA nomination, and I’m proud of the work my team and I put in to get it done,” said Moroz. “I’m excited and honored to be one step closer to representing USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and I’ve got my sights set on country qualification in The Hague next month. Racing on Olympic waters this week was really valuable and I’m hungry to come back and get the result I know I can achieve.”

Erika Reineke logged the most dramatic Medal Race of the ten US Sailing Team athletes who advanced to Finals, rocketing from near last to a race win. Reineke’s Medal Race win ultimately did not affect her 10th overall score (missing ninth by 1 point), but it will go down in the books as one of the best races of the week in Marseille, and she proved her skills on one of the most important stages in the lead up to the Paris Games.

Reineke came into the Medal Race in 10th out of the 10 top women with nothing to lose and bolted to the right side of the course when the rest of the fleet went left. The wind was coming from the direction of the marina and the windward mark was set just outside the harbor, and the other nine athletes sought the pressure lanes making their way down the left.

She rounded the first windward mark ninth, hot on the heels of the tight 1-8 pack and a gap behind her to 10th and kicked it into high gear flying downwind at 12 knots, according to the tracker.

Reineke chose the course-left gate and gained some height on the half of the fleet that went right, tacked onto port to chase their pod, then lee-bowed the group and led them back to the left.

And before spectators at the bottom of the course knew it, Reineke was leading the ILCA 6 Medal Race of the Test Event, bow reaching for the sky as she bulleted down the final reach leg through the gate and onto the finish.

Overall, the week was a confidence boost for the USA and confirmation that efforts are paying off across the board. “We made some good gains on the water and came away with important experience learning the venue that we can build into institutional knowledge for the future Paris 2024 Olympic Team,” said Sally Barkow, US Olympic Sailing Head of Operations. “We had great collaboration between coaches, the staff worked really efficiently, and I’m proud of what we accomplished as a team. We have a solid foundation to build upon for 2024.”

Next, American athletes will work to qualify the USA in all ten Olympic classes at the Sailing World Championships in The Hague, The Netherlands from August 11-20. A high enough finishing place by any American boat will secure a berth in Paris 2024 in that class for the USA, and 48 athletes will be putting their best foot forward in 25 days.

Final US Sailing Team Results:

3 – Daniela Moroz, Women’s Formula Kite*

4 – Stephanie Roble & Maggie Shea, 49er FX*

5 – Stu McNay & Lara Dallman-Weiss, Mixed 470*

6 – Ian Barrows & Hans Henken, 49er*

10 – Erika Reineke, ILCA 6*

10 – Sarah Newberry Moore & David Liebenberg, Nacra 17*

12 – Noah Lyons, Men’s iQFOiL

17 – Dominique Stater, Women’s iQFOiL

27 – Chapman Petersen, ILCA 7

19 – Markus Edegran, Men’s Formula Kite (Injury)**

* Medal Race Participant

** (Markus Edegran sustained an injury to his foot on the second day of racing in the penultimate race of the day. He was bandaged by Coach Steve Keen, raced the final race of the day, and was treated immediately upon returning to shore by US Sailing Team Physio, Dr. Chris Ellis. Edegran is on the mend and is eager to heal quickly and get back on the water.

The post US Sailing Team Buoyed by Test Event Results appeared first on Sailing World.

The Olympic Regatta is right around the corner and many athletes are making the final push for berths and funds, including the US Sailing Team’s Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth, Olympic 470 hopefuls. This campaign update from their latest newsletter reveals the challenges and rewards of the campaign life and the importance for passing the GoFundMe basket.

Wind, waves, and sunshine. What more could a sailor ask for? As we hoisted sails and launched our boat in the clear blue waters on the island of Mallorca, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a long road for us to get here, especially this year.

Our team had faced some significant challenges. Our biggest sponsor throughout our Olympic 470 campaign shifted strategies…and after our test event qualifiers ended in February, Trevor and I were left with no equipment and no funding to continue with our campaign. This put us in a tough position considering we are less than a year out from our Olympic trials and we pretty much needed to restart our campaign from scratch. It made us reconsider everything. Why are we doing this? Is it worth it? Is it possible? Our final conclusion. Yes. We are all in.

Luckily with the bit of money Trevor and I could scrape up between the two of us, we managed to get possession of a boat, and pack it up and put it in a container in time to make it to Palma.

So, Trevor and I got to work, harder than ever to restructure and reframe our campaign. We knew we never wanted to be put in this position again, and so a big priority for us going forward is to have complete ownership of our campaign at all levels. Luckily with the bit of money Trevor and I could scrape up between the two of us, we managed to get possession of a boat, and pack it up and put it in a container in time to make it to Palma. We had no sails and the boat was missing a lot of pieces… but we knew we could figure it out. That was the motto. We’ll figure it out.

In March after shipping the only 470 equipment we owned in a container from Miami to Barcelona, we had no equipment to train on and were forced to get creative. While we scoured Miami to assemble a 470 to use, we did some coaching, trained and competed in other sailboat classes, and continued to work hard in the gym. What we thought would be a period of no sailing turned into a lot of hours on the water, learning from a different perspective from what we have been used to these past two years.

Louisa got some foiling time in the Waszps at the American Magic training base in Pensacola, and also competed in the Etchells class for the first time and finished in third place overall at the Etchells Midwinters. Trevor finished fourth driving at the Snipe Midwinters in Key Largo with his sister Katie, and was chosen as one of a select few coaches to train the top youth teams at the legendary CISA clinic. There is so much to learn in the sport of sailing, and we’ve both appreciated the time we’ve had to explore different avenues of the sport and bring it back to the 470. I think this time has been really valuable to us and allowed us to see the sport of sailing through a different lens.

Thanks to the help of many friends and mentors, we were able to get a boat pieced together to train with in Miami and managed to get 10 days on the water in the beginning of March training with the US 470 squad before heading off to Palma for the Princess Sofia Regatta. Stu McNay, Nikki Barnes, Dave Hughes, and Lara Dallman-Weis helped us get a boat together to practice with and after this productive training block, we shipped it over to the Spanish island of Mallorca for some more training before the start of the event.

Once we arrived in Palma we had quite a lot of work ahead of us to get the boat race ready. We spent the first few days practically living at the boat park doing repairs, replacing parts, and getting the boat tuned to our liking. We had no tool box when we first arrived, but thanks to our friends in the 470 fleet we were able to scavenge the correct tools to get the job done. It’s a beautiful thing in the sailing world. You travel around to all of these events, training and competing against the same people. Some of your biggest competition turns into some of your closest friends, and fortunately for us, our friends really came through for us to help us get our ship up to speed. After countless hours giving our boat love she deserves, our beautiful vessel, Lisa, was ready to go.

At this year’s 52nd Princess Sofia Regatta there were a record number of boats in comparison to previous years. Seventy-two boats, split into two fleets for five days of racing, plus a medal race. The conditions this year were spectacular, especially when compared to last year’s blistering cold and stormy conditions. Sunny clear blue skies and a consistent sea breeze for practically every day of training leading up to the event. Couldn’t ask for much more. Unfortunately, this didn’t carry into the first day of the event, and we spent most of the day postponed, starting some racing and abandoning them shortly after. The real first day of racing was Day 2 of the event, and we started off strong. A decent start tacking off to the right early with a consistent right shift throughout the beat. Rounded the top mark in third and picked off a few boats throughout the race to finish in first. It was a great feeling. This was what we were working toward. All the struggle to get to this event was worth it for moments like this.

We scraped by well enough to get ourselves into gold fleet where we got some great quality racing. One highlight was leading a gold fleet race until the final downwind where we got a yellow flag penalty on the last downwind leg of the race.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to match that going into the following races. We struggled to get off the starting line and played things too conservatively. The next day we strung along a similar series of races. We had great speed, but we didn’t give ourselves enough opportunities in the race by holding ourselves back at the start. We scraped by well enough to get ourselves into gold fleet where we got some great quality racing. One highlight was leading a gold fleet race until the final downwind where we got a yellow flag penalty on the last downwind leg of the race. Some highs and some lows. It’s impressive to see how the level of sailing in the fleet is picking up as we get closer and closer to the Olympics. The caliber of the fleet this year as compared to last year is significantly different. A lot of great lessons learned when up against such great opponents, it definitely highlights your weak spots quickly.

We finished up the event in 22nd overall. We’ve already started another training block and it’s been great to approach training with new goals and areas for improvement based on this event. We are so glad the pieces fell into place to allow us to go and compete in this event. It was such a great experience to go and compete with our new mindset and campaign setup, squeezing every ounce of value from each day with our coach Steve Keen and our quality training partners Stu McNay and Lara Dallman-Weis. We’re pushing the level of 470 sailing in the United States together. Coming up are the 470 European Championships in San Remo, Italy (May 12-20), Coaches regattas and training – Marseille, France (the Olympic venue), domestic training in Newport, Rhode Island in prep for Worlds (July), and the Allianz Sailing World Championship – The Hague, Netherlands (August 10-20).

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From French Mistral winds in the 30s to bobbing around in postponement and everything in between, Hyères tested competitors with a wide range of challenges during the 54th edition of Semaine Olympique Française. Daniela Moroz, of Lafayette, Calif., brought home a silver medal for the US Sailing Team in the Women’s Formula Kite and two more classes finished off their selection procedures for the 2023 Olympic Test Event and Pan American Games. Stephanie Roble, of East Troy, Wis., and Maggie Shea, of Wilmette, Ill., will represent the US in the 49erFX, and Sarah Newberry Moore, of Miami, Fla., and David Liebenberg, of Richmond, Calif., will compete in the Nacra 17 July 7-16 on the future Paris 2024 waters and in Santiago, Chile October 20-November 5.

The Trofeo Princesa Sofía was the first time in Daniela Moroz’s kitefoil career that she entered semifinals instead of advancing straight to finals and finished outside the podium. Moroz faced her second career semifinals this week in Hyères and fought her way through an epic comeback from 5th to 2nd. She kept spectators on their toes as she won the two Semifinal races she needed to advance to Finals, won the first Finals race, and chased the one last race win she needed to win the event. France’s Lauriane Nolot came away with the Gold after securing the only race win she needed to win the event, and Jessie Kampman, of France, rounded out the podium in third.

“I knew I was capable of delivering under pressure and I’m really proud of how I finished Semifinals and Finals to take home the silver medal this week,” said Moroz. “It was stressful and intense but I had a solid plan with my team and was able to execute my strategy in the racing. This week was long and hard with a lot of ups and downs and I struggled with consistency but to be able to put it all together on Finals day and end on a high note felt really good.”

“French Olympic Week is a step closer to the Olympic Test Event and the Pan Am Games,” said Newberry Moore after officially locking in the Nacra 17 spot with her partner, David Liebenberg. “Over the last 6 months we’ve diligently chipped away at weaknesses that became apparent to us in training camps and in regattas. French Olympic Week 2023 was the first time we’ve sailed inside the top 10 in the world at a World Cup regatta. We went into the Medal Race with the potential to be on the podium which is an incredible achievement and an indication of how our hard work has begun to pay off. We know that growth is not linear, but we are very excited to see the evidence of it. We’re really looking forward to representing the US at the Olympic Test Event in Marseille this summer.” 

The 49er FX battle for the Test Event and Pan American Games spots came down to Steph Roble and Maggie Shea and Paris Henken and Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias – two teams of qualified, seasoned Olympians. Roble and Shea came out on top with 13 points between the Trofeo Princesa Sofía and French Olympic Week regattas, an 11-point lead over Henken and Tunnicliffe Tobias with 24 points.

“We had super challenging conditions on the front end of the week with the Mistral winds and then again at the end of the week with light wind,” said Roble. “We had a lot of fun learning throughout the week and working on our processes. We qualified for the Medal Race in a good position and unfortunately had a tough race and weren’t very quick upwind. We finished 10th in the race which put us in 8th overall, but the big goal was to focus on qualifying for the Olympic Test Event, which we’re happy to have achieved.”

Next, many US Sailing Team athletes make their way to Marseille or The Hague, The Netherlands for training on Olympic and World Championship waters, respectively.

Final USA Results:

Women’s Formula Kite

2nd: Daniela Moroz, US Sailing Team

Nacra 17

7th: Sarah Newberry Moore & David Liebenberg, US Sailing Team

49er

7th: Ian Barrows & Hans Henken, US Sailing Team

10th: Andrew Mollerus & Ian MacDiarmid, US Sailing Tem

16th: Nevin Snow & Mac Agnese

49er FX

8th: Stephanie Roble, Tokyo 2020 & Maggie Shea, Tokyo 2020, US Sailing Team

9th: Paris Henken, Rio 2016 & Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias, Beijing 2008 and London 2012

Men’s Formula Kite

7th: Markus Edegran, US Sailing Team

20th: Kai Calder, US Sailing Team

37th: Evan Heffernan

57th: Noah Runciman

70th: Casey Brown

77th: Adam Keaton

Women’s iQFOiL

11th: Dominique Stater, US Sailing Team

18th: Bryn Muller

ILCA 6

22nd: Charlotte Rose, US Sailing Team

33rd: Christina Sakellaris

36th: Lilly Myers

56th: Hallie Schiffman

ILCA 7

52nd: Ford McCann

108th: Daniel Escudero

The post Two U.S. Olympic Pairs Earn Test Event Berths appeared first on Sailing World.

After Mallorca had delivered more than two weeks of great winds and weather, which were perfect for pre-regatta training, the 1,259 athletes from 66 nations at the 52 Trofeo Princesa Sofia Olympic classes regatta had to endure an ultimately frustrating opening day of unsettled, changeable winds which badly affected the scheduled program.

Racing was scheduled for the ILCA 6 and 7 fleets, the 470 Mixed and the Men’s and Women’s iQFoil fleets. But only one part of the Men’s iQFOiL fleet managed to complete two races and the Men’s ILCA 7 Yellow fleet finished one qualifying heat. The second race for the iQFoilers was badly affected as the wind dropped away. Other races for the dinghy fleets had to be abandoned as the breeze faltered and shifted in direction when a big rain cloud drifted over the arena.

After an initial delay in the morning waiting until the offshore gradient breeze dissipated, the southerly winds did come in, puffing up to more than 12kts at times. It all looked very promising. But the thermal breeze could not sustain itself and the foiling windsurfers suffered a long, slow, semi-sunken drift back to Can Pastilla.

The French are present with impressive strength and depth in the Men’s iQFOiL fleet, vying for the coveted selection spot at July’s Olympic test event. Double European champion and 2021 World Champion Nico Goyard, who finished third at Lanzarote’s iQFOiL International Games is said to be favorite to take that spot, but all of the French riders know that a top result here would give their national selectors something of a headache, especially when the expected mix Bay of Palma conditions are considered to be very similar to what might be expected on Marseille’s 2024 Olympic arena.

RS:X youth champion Yun Pouliquen won his first heat and finished seventh in the second. “The second race was quite shifty but we got it finished. The first race was a win, I had a good start and was fast on the downwind and there was another French guy Clement Bourgeois behind. It was really good. We trained a lot in Lanzarote through the winter and now have been training here for one month. I think the selection is between Nico Goyard, Clement Bourgeois and Pierre Le Coq they are all quite equal. I am still young at 21 but I try my best to be in the match.”

Germany’s reigning iQFOiL World Champion Sebastian Koerdel also made a solid opening with a first and a second from his two heats today. “Before the rain came in it was quite fun. You really have to be fast on the reach. Doing these six slalom heats at a time the points are always super close to start with” he said. “I was seventh here last year but, like everyone, I am here to win. it is good fun to get the regatta going. A bullet in the first race was good, the second start was not what I expected but I came back on the downwinds.”

Koerdel was a PWA professional windsurfer before the iQFOiL opened the door to Olympic representation. He has trained out of Arenal for the best part of a month.

“Once it was clear that foiling would be an Olympic discipline I decided to give it a go and here I am, it seems to be going OK,” said 32-year-old Koerdel. “I won the Worlds last year. At some levels we all go the same speed and so with the format we race to it is more and more a mental game. We have a medal race where the first to the line wins. You have to mentally tough to take all that pressure. A world championship is decided in one race, over what…six minutes? In the Federation we work with a psychologist now and it helps a bit, but this is new to me. This is the first time I have had a coach in my career really. It is good to be aware and to think about things and get better all the time.”

The ILCA 7 Yellow fleet completed one race while the Blue group had theirs abandoned. The breeze was backing in fits and starts through the afternoon and the Yellow group had the best of the shifty conditions. Finland’s Kaarle Tapper took first gun ahead of last year’s Sofia class winner Micky Beckett of Great Britain whilst Australia’s 2020’s Olympic champion Matt Wearn was third.

Nonetheless this critical, highly competitive Olympic classes pointer is now under way. Tuesday should see the other fleets join the fray when the full magnitude of this record-breaking entry should be evident with competition over all eight course areas.

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Training alone in their International 470 off the south shore of Long Island, New York, in the summer of 2021, Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth were a world away from the spectacle of the Tokyo Games. There, Olympians Stu McNay and Dave Hughes rolled their sails together for the last time, marking the end of the individual men’s and women’s Olympic 470 disciplines and the beginning of the new Mixed Olympic 470 era. For Nordstrom and Bornarth, and many young sailors looking to reach the pinnacle of dinghy sailing, this new coed medal provides a unique opportunity to compete in the Paris and Los Angeles Games.

“It (the switch to a mixed class) does level the playing field a little bit for a new sailor coming into the fleet because everyone has to reset by sailing with a new person,” Nordstrom says. “There’s a lot of younger talent coming into the 470 because I think it’s easier to get into the class given that everyone is starting fresh.”

Nordstrom, 24, from Sarasota, Florida, grew up racing in the ILCA 6, Club 420 and 29er fleets and excelled at Yale, receiving four College Sailing All-American honors before graduating in 2020. Bornarth, two years younger and from Port Solerno, Florida, stood out in the International 420 class, placing second at the 2017 World Sailing Youth World Championships. While pursuing Olympic 470 sailing full time, Bornarth is also enrolled online at the University of Florida.

The pair first connected in Newport in the fall of 2020 through the US Sailing Team Olympic Development Program, an initiative aimed at preparing elite youth sailors for Olympic-level competition. With both sailors aiming for the 2024 Games, they began their campaign with the Oyster Bay 470 Team and were named to the US Sailing Team in 2022.

A year and a half later, now with the full resources of the US Sailing Team, their most significant challenges still lie before them. Following years of intense training and competition, however, Nordstrom and Bornarth are dialing in their performance, and their results are getting them ever closer to the top.

“Last year was a big year of figuring out how to sail the 470 fast—and that is a huge project,” Bornarth says. “Now we’re focused on racing, in-the-boat communication, and how we’re making decisions in tactical situations where you can either gain three boats or lose three boats. That’s how we can go from struggling in the upper-middle pack to punching through to the medal race consistently.”

Developing Olympic-level performance in the 470 is a lifelong mission, says two-time Olympian Dave Hughes. “You never finish learning how to sail a 470,” he says. “It has many modes available to you, both upwind and downwind, and you pay a large price if you spend time in a mode that is not ideal. You can sail the boat at an A level for an entire race and artificially think that you’re at an A-plus level, but you pay the price with your results.”

With Nordstrom and Bornarth each bringing a unique background and experience to the 470, they rely on each other’s strengths to excel in a variety of conditions. “Louisa is an absolute weapon at calling the shifty stuff—college sailing definitely paid off there. When it’s cranking, and Louisa can’t see anything, I’m calling tactics,” Bornarth says.

The ability for teams to rely on both partners in the tactical conversation is paramount for success in the 470, Hughes says: “Most successful teams are running it so that the crew and the helm can appropriately shift the tactical football. You have to be able to transfer authority on the tactics effectively—there’s just so much to be gained and lost in the margins that that’s where the best teams show their prowess, and that’s how you win regattas.”

Training with international partners in Europe has allowed Nordstrom and Bornarth to work with the world’s leading teams while the American 470 fleet continues to develop. “We’ve worked a lot together with the Italians, the Israelis and the Brits,” Nordstrom says. “Being in Europe and being able to go early to events and train together with the entire fleet has been an absolute game-changer.”

The duo also uses state-of-the-art technology to improve during domestic solo training sessions. “We have trackers, and at the end of the day, we can put it all on a tablet and analyze different aspects of our sailing,” Bornarth says. “That makes it a little more productive than it would be if we just say, ‘Oh, we’re going out to look at this new mainsail,’ and we’re by ourselves—we don’t get any data off it. Now that we’re incorporating these sailing instruments, it’s been a lot more productive.”

Seeing success in their ­racing results after years of hard work is a major driving factor in Nordstrom and Bornarth’s campaign. Finishing 13th at the 2022 International 470 European Championship in Turkey, their best campaign result to date, has motivated them to become even better. “Turkey was really exciting, as we were finally in the front of the fleet,” Nordstrom says. “We’ve known we can do it, and it was great to finally get a taste of accomplishing it. I think a big motivation going forward is to continue experiencing that feeling.”

Nordstrom and Bornarth represent a generation of younger 470 sailors stepping into a notoriously technical and specialized class. Spearheaded by the Olympic Development Program and the private Oyster Bay 470 Team, collegiate sailors and recent graduates flocking to the boat are revitalizing what was recently considered a dying one-design class.

“Right now, the problem is we need boats,” Bornarth says. “People are looking to buy more boats, and a lot of the [420] youth teams are starting to cross over. Domestically, US Sailing has done a great job of starting to promote the 470 again, and if we can get 10 boats on the starting line of the [2023 West Marine] US Open Sailing Series, that will probably be the first time in a decade that we’ve had that.”

The 470 remains one of the world’s most competitive classes despite the influx of new sailors following the change to a mixed format.

“I think, initially, the switch definitely leveled the playing field. But as we’ve seen over the past six months, it has fully ramped up—all the top guys are back with new crews or crews from the women’s or men’s squad,” Bornarth says. “You still have all the same sailors that were initially at the top of the men’s and women’s fleets now at the top of this fleet, so it’s still very challenging. Now that we’ve combined the men’s and women’s fleets, it’s gotten deeper. While the level may not be as high as it was in the top three of the men’s or women’s fleets, now the top 15 are there.”

Strong competition is also returning to the United States, with four-time 470 Olympian Stu McNay partnering with 2021 Women’s 470 Olympian Lara Dallman-Weiss. The full consequences of the shift to the mixed format will not be known for years to come, but current results show promise in assisting the development and longevity of the fleet.

“There’s a lot behind the decision for it going mixed,” says Hughes, who serves on World Sailing’s Athletes’ Commission, a body that represents Olympic athletes in World Sailing’s decision-­making process. “Ultimately, it did yield a case for [the 470] being in for another two Olympics: Paris and LA. Does that help the class? Absolutely, it does. Is the class different in terms of the people and the vibe? Yes, for sure. There are some people who have stuck on after Tokyo, but mostly it has provided a lot of newcomers an opportunity in the class. I think it is healthy, and now it is up to the class over the next two years to show that it can become the type of class that is more modern in terms of its racing, thought process and class development, and really deserves to be in the Olympic schedule.”

While Nordstrom and Bornarth have a long road ahead, they’re enjoying every moment of it.

“It’s all about the process and enjoying it,” Bornarth says. “The big thing in our campaign is making sure that even tasks that aren’t that fun, we try to find the joy in it. We tell ourselves every day that we’re living the dream—this is what we want to be doing.”

While the Olympic regatta was a world away not too long ago, the call of Marseille is fast becoming a real thing for Nordstrom and Bornarth. There will be plenty more sails to roll before then, and if Olympic aspirations come up short in 2024, the next big shot in Long Beach is right around the corner in 2028.

The post The New Mix of Olympic 470 Pairs appeared first on Sailing World.

The Florida swing of the US Open Sailing Series culminated in Clearwater in February after four days filled with highs and lows for the 200 athletes and 30 countries and territories in attendance. Nearly all the Olympic classes – iQFOiL Women & Men, 49er, Formula Kite Women & Men, ILCA 6, ILCA 7, and 470 Mixed – came together on the Gulf of Mexico off Sand Key Beach. The regatta saw extremely variable conditions. Thursday was too light for most classes to race, Friday’s gusts over 30 knots kept competitors ashore, and the final two days featured stellar conditions that allowed the Race Committee to run a nearly full slate of races for the competitors.

For US athletes, it was the final selection event to qualify for the 2023 Pan American Games, the 2023 Sailing World Championships, and the 2023 Olympic Test Event at the Paris 2024 venue. The event also served as a country qualifier for the 2023 Pan American Games with many countries in attendance seeking their spot in Santiago, Chile.

Clearwater locals dominated the Men’s iQFOiL fleet, with two of the top three men all hailing from the local sailing center. Noah Lyons took first place with 11 points, achieving USA selection for the Pan Am Games and 2023 Olympic Test Event later this year. His training partners Geronimo Nores and Alexander Temko took second and third with 11 and 16 points, respectively.

IQFOiL Men:
USA Noah Lyons, 11
USA Geronimo Nores, 11
USA Alexander Temko, 16

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Venezuela, Dominican Republic

For the iQFOiL Women, Brazilian Giovanna Prada secured her spot at the top of the podium after winning four of eight races. Following Prada was American Dominique Stater, whose performances in Miami and Clearwater earned her selection for the 2023 Pan Am Games and 2023 Olympic Test Event. Hawaiian native Danicka Sailer represented the islands well and inched out third place over Mexican competitors in fourth and fifth.

iQFOiL Women:
BRA Giovanna Prada, 8
USA Dominique Stater, 10
USA Danicka Sailer, 17

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Mexico, Canada

Newly minted as the 2022 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, Formula Kite phenom Daniela Moroz took first place in the Women’s Formula Kite with 11 points over eight races. She was followed in the standings by two kiters from Great Britain, Ellie Aldridge and Maddy Anderson, who finished with 23 and 24 points, respectively.

Formula Kite Women:
USA Daniela Moroz, 11
GBR Ellie Aldridge, 23
GBR Maddy Anderson, 24

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Argentina, Colombia

In the Men’s Formula Kite, Cameron Maramenides, a 2018 Youth Olympic Games competitor, sailed a consistent event taking the win with 23 points. US Sailing Team member Markus Edegran finished second with 29 points, while British kiter Guy Bridge finished third with 30 points.

Formula Kite Men: 
GRE Cameron Maramenides, 23
USA Markus Edegran, 29GBR Guy Bridge, 30

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Mexico, Canada

Americans dominated the ILCA 6 podium at this year’s Clearwater US Open. Erika Reineke and Charlotte Rose tied for first place with 13 points, with Reineke winning the tiebreaker to take the event, which, along with her performance at last month’s Lauderdale US Open, earned her a spot at the Pan Am Games and the Olympic Test Event. The podium was rounded out by their training partner Christina Sakellaris, who finished with 19 points.

ILCA 6:
USA Erika Reineke, 13
USA Charlotte Rose, 13
USA Christina Sakellaris, 19

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cayman Islands

The ILCA 7 class saw a strong contingent from the Americas. Peruvian Stefano Peschiera, took first overall, winning four of the seven races and finishing with six points total. He was followed by Olympic veteran Juan Ignacio Maegli from Guatemala in second with 12 points, and El Salvadorian Enrique Arathoon in third with 18 points. 

Leo Boucher, who finished in fourth place, was the top finishing American. Chapman Petersen, who finished sixth overall, won selection for the Pan Am Games, Olympic Test Event, and the guaranteed berth for the Combined World Championship. Note, the United States qualified the ILCA 7 for Pan Ams at the 2022 ILCA 7 North American Championship.

ILCA 7: 
PER Stefano Peschiera, 6
GUA Juan Ignacio Maegli, 12
ESA Enrique Arathoon, 18

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event*: Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bermuda

American teams swept the 49er podium this year, with US Sailing Team athletes Ian Barrows and Hans Henken finishing first with eight points, securing USA selection for the 2023 Pan Am Games and Olympic Test Event. Training partners Nevin Snow and Mac Agnese came in second with 17 points while Andrew Mollerus and Ian MacDiarmid rounded out the podium in third with 19 points. The United States qualified the 49er for Pan Ams at the 2022 49er World Championship.

49er:
USA Ian Barrows & Hans Henken, 8 
USA Nevin Snow & Mac Agnese, 17
USA Andrew Mollerus & Ian MacDiarmid, 19

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: Canada, Mexico, Brazil

Four-time Olympian Stu McNay paired up with Tokyo 2020 Olympian Lara Dallman-Weiss this weekend to win the Clearwater US Open’s Mixed 470 class with six points after winning four of the six total races. They were followed closely by US Sailing Team athletes Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth, who finished second with eight points. Kyra Phelan and Sawyer Bastian finished third with 16 points. 

470 Mixed:
USA Stuart McNay & Lara Dallman-Weiss, 6
USA Louisa Nordstrom & Trevor Bornarth, 8
USA Kyra Phelan & Sawyer Bastian, 16

[The Pan American Games do not feature the 470]

As of the time of this release, the United States has qualified all nine Olympic classes, the Snipe, and Lightning for the 2023 Pan American Games. Country qualification events for the men’s and women’s Sunfish will begin in March of this year to complete the Pan American sailing slate.

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It’s July 23, 2022, and I am in Marseille, France, at the Olympic sailing venue for Paris 2024. My crew, Maggie Shea, and I are getting ready for a day of training in our baptism in the Mistral conditions. Only one year ago, we were wide-eyed at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Games, preparing our minds, bodies and equipment to deliver our best performance on the water. It’s crazy to think how fast time has passed, but it’s exciting to realize all the improvements we can make between now and this time in two years. We have two goals for Marseille: Learn the venue on and off the water, and get ready for the 49erFX World Championship in September.

The US Sailing Team has a base at Yachting Club Point Rouge, which allows us to set up camp with the two containers we had in Tokyo (donated by Jim Cunningham and the US Etchells class). These containers provide a workshop, debrief room, locker and storage space, refrigerators and, most importantly, shade and air conditioning.

As expected of a Mediterranean ­summer, air temperatures hover in the 90s and the water is a toasty 80 degrees. We’ve had great breeze every day, mainly from the west, which means big-time chop and waves. The Mistral kicks in when a low-­pressure ­system passes east and is followed by a high-pressure system to the ­northwest.

When we head out for training, it’s blowing 15 to 20 out of the northwest with a 6-foot swell and steep chop. The team’s meteorologist, Chelsea Carlson, of SeaTactics, is on-site and joins us for the day’s training. It’s important that we all talk about and log the weather and wind ­patterns while we are here.

We set out for a three-hour training ­session, with the first half focused on tuning and technique in the waves. One unique element of the 49erFX is that the crew has the mainsheet, so communication and coordination with the driving and trimming are critical. Today, we work on keeping a higher average speed in the waves and minimizing the extremes with our modes. I have to focus on more-precise driving over the waves and dial more into Maggie’s comms. She is talking to me about mainsheet range and the speed of the boat.

The range is my guide for any puff or lull; how much room she has to depower or power up the boat. With no instruments allowed in racing, speed is based on feel, which is a specific sensation in the 49erFX. When we have speed, we know we can take a little bit of height at the right moment. And with each puff, lull and wave sequence, these comms continue.

Soon it’s time to set the kite to rip downwind in these beautiful conditions. I love it when we are in full-send mode, with both of us in the foot straps hiking as hard and aft as we can to keep the bow tracking over the wave tops. Our plan is to do several jibes on this long run to work on quickly finding the right spot. Sometimes it’s tempting to wait for the perfect spot to go in these conditions, but we risk overspending the layline and getting slow. So, if we can be confident in our boathandling to jibe when the coach blows the whistle, or just shortly after, we can make huge gains in racing.

Next, we get into short-course racing with a few other teams and focus on executing starts (specifically, the go-time for these conditions), locking into speed off the line using what we’ve just learned in the tuning portion and boathandling now that other boats are in the picture. We acknowledge that small shifts are happening with this breeze direction, but given the large waves and chop, a wide lane is the key to speed off the starting line.

After three hours of a productive and fun session, ticking off a few goals we had set for the day, we return to the base. This is a fun part of the day because we have a few different classes and coaches around. While hosing off our boat or eating a post-sailing snack, we can share nuggets of knowledge with teammates, share stories of a good race, or laugh at our wipeouts. We complete our equipment checks, debrief in the cool air of the container, and slide the cover over the boat. We are tired but happy knowing that another day of Mission Marseille has been checked. One down. A lot more to go.

The post Milestones In Marseille appeared first on Sailing World.

Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz, of the Netherlands, secured the 2022 49erFX World Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, over the weekend. In the medal race, the Dutch pair outdueled the Swedish challenge from Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler who took the silver. Twice winners of the 49erFX World Championship from Spain, Tamara Echegoyen and Paula Barcelo took the bronze medal.

There was only a 5-point gap between the protagonist teams at the start of the medal race, but the Swedish got caught out by a sudden left-hand windshift with just 5 seconds to the start gun. What had been a perfectly judged approach to win the pin end of the line turned into a Swedish scramble to gybe around and salvage some kind of start behind the fleet on port tack. The damage was done and it proved impossible for the young Swedes to mount a comeback in the light winds.

Van Aanholt and Duetz maintained their composure to move all the way up the fleet to third in the medal race, and the overall result was never close after the first mark. Van Aanholt won both the 2021 World and European titles, each with different crews but paired up with Duetz to start the 2022 season. With this victory, van Aanholt repeats as world champion while Duetz wins her third 49erFX world title, the most of any sailor.

Bart Lambriex and Floris van der Werken, of the Netherlands, secured their second straight 49er world title. The Dutch pair had a strong score line heading into the final race, making their lead mathematically insurmountable. Attention in Sunday afternoon’s 10-boat medal race therefore turned to the battle for silver and bronze. The outcome was uncertain until the end, but Diego Botin and Florian Trittel, of Spain, did just enough to win silver by 2 points, with Croatian brothers Sime and Miho Fantela earning the bronze in a tense fight with New Zealand and Poland.

After completing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign, Lambriex went his separate ways with former crew Pim van Vugt to team up with van der Werken. They have since gone on to win the 2021 world title in Oman and now in Nova Scotia in 2022. The Dutch showed few weaknesses on St. Margarets Bay, sailing incredibly consistently across a broad range of conditions.

Can they go on to be as dominant as Pete Burling and Blair Tuke, of New Zealand, who retired from 49er competition after six world titles and a gold and two silver medals at three successive Olympic Regattas? Too early to tell, and there are plenty of high-quality teams breathing down their necks, not least the Spanish and Croatians who scooped the other medals in Nova Scotia.

The impressive performance of the 2022 World Championships in Halifax was easily that Nacra 17 sailors Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, of Italy, who won 14 of 16 fleet races, winning the title before the medal race was sailed. It can’t be denied that, as Australian coach Darren Bundock put it, the pairing is a “class above” the rest of the world.

“Today there wasn’t much emotion,” said Banti, after being hugged by competitors. “We knew we had the championship. We have just been focusing on enjoying our race.”

Silver medalists Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei, who have been second now in two world championships in a row, certainly have made a step closer to this excellent level. But even this team that trains with the champions were in awe. “They are really strong, really fast, they are super,” said Ugolini, shrugging his shoulders with a smile. “We train together. We finished first and second. So, it works.”

Tita made sure to note that they are pushing forward despite their unprecedented string of wins, a statement that puts the rest of the World’s fleet on notice that the hill to the top will only get steeper in the following months. “We already have a big list of things to try and to do,” said Tita. “It’s going to be a busy winter.”

Heading into the Northern Hemisphere winter, each of the top teams have a staggeringly long break between major events with only the Princess Sofia Trophy in Palma, Spain, in early April as a target. The new Nacra 17 articulating rudders were given to the sailors just before the 2022 Palma regatta and changed the face of racing in the class opening minds and possibilities with full upwind foiling.

With a winter of isolated training, it’s anyone’s guess how big the gains will be on the race course or who will bend their minds and find new gears and paths to leap-frog the gold standard set this year by the Italian teams.

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