SAILING Mag RSA August 2016 issue 385 to ZINIO

OLYMPICS. RIO 2016
The Time Has Come
By Richard Crockett
Stefano Marcia.
pic byPedro Martinez/SailingEnergy/ISAF
The Rio Olympic games
are just around the
corner now, and our
sailing Olympians have
been on the international
sailing circuit for some
years, honing their skills
against the best in the
world, gaining valuable
experience, and simply
preparing themselves
and their boats for the
Olympic competition.
Some may view their
lifestyle as glamorous,
while others believe
it may be fun and quite
easy. It’s NOT, believe me
as these three guys have
sweated blood, sacrificed
much, and personally
given up a regular day-today
lifestyle in their quest for a spot in the South African Olympic squad -
and a shot at Gold!
In these interviews, our team of Stefano Marcia (Laser), Asenathi
Jim and Roger Hudson (470) reveal just what they have done to prepare
themselves for what may be the biggest event of their sailing lives. They
have revealed a side of the campaign few have known about, let alone
thought about, or connected to what is an all-encompassing Olympic
campaign. Readers now have a first time insight into the lives of our
Olympic sailors.
The Olympics are now
around the corner. Have
you done everything
possible to maximise
your possibilities in Rio?
Stefano. I believe
I went about my first
Olympic campaign the
right way and my focus
is still on finishing in the
top 15 at the games. There
are still big flaws in my
sailing, but I’m working on
that everyday and trying
my absolute best to be
fully prepared when the
time comes this August
Roger Hudson & Asenathi Jim.
to put everything else
pic by Sander van der Borch
behind me and focus
solely on that week of
racing.
Asenathi. I feel that we have done a lot to get to where we are today.
Most importantly moving our basic training base to Cape Town to do all our
training from home, rather than in Europe, has been very positive. What I
have learnt through campaigning is that you can never say you have done
absolutely everything to prepare. There are so many things to optimize that
you always have the fear something has been missed since every day there
is something new and interesting to learn.
Roger. I really hope so! I can say that we have given our absolute all to
maximising the Rio result and simultaneously worked hard at building for
the future beyond Rio. It has been a fascinating Olympic cycle, full of tough
challenges, a few disappointments and some very sweet successes. We’ve
certainly put together a campaign and wider project over the four years
since London 2012 that we feel proud of.
In terms of how we’ve tried to maximise it, the story is probably best
told by the numbers: Since London 2012 Asenathi and I have re-located
our campaign base from Europe to Africa, setting up two training bases in
Cape Town. We’ve run 320 training days in South Africa in 470s, inviting
and including a total of 35 promising young SA sailors in these sessions
along the way. We’ve made 22 international trips, completed over 100
training days overseas, and competed at 54 international regattas, 51 of
them Olympic class events, as well as three other World Championships
(SB20 class) where we finished 1st, 3rd and 4th. In terms of performance
in the 470, over the last 4 years we’ve improved our world ranking from
47th to 15th and qualified for Gold Fleet at all 8 of the World and European
Championships over the 4-year cycle and posted 470 world championship
results from 2013 to 2016 of 35, 32, 21 & 11.
Alongside our direct Rio 2016 campaign we’ve opened our 420 SAbased
training sessions to the best performing SA youngsters and we’ve
invited and hosted 10 international Olympic-class sailors from Germany,
France, Canada, Sweden, Greece and Angola to South Africa. We’ve
developed a diverse RSA 470 training squad of eight committed talented
sailors and set up mini-campaigns for nine diverse young SA sailors to
compete at a total of 11 international championships (in addition to our
campaign events), producing solid and at times spectacular results. We’ve
also given four members of our 470 training squad the opportunity to be in
the coach-boat, observing and supporting us at a total of 10 senior Olympic
sailing circuit events in France, Germany, Denmark, USA, Argentina, Spain
and Brazil - including at Rio 2016 itself.
To fund the campaign, we’ve engaged six corporate sponsors, secured
Operation Excellence contracts with SASCOC, proposed and initiated
an objective results-driven funding mechanism with SAS for all South
African Olympic class sailors meeting the performance criteria. This
has enabled funding from SAS not just for ourselves but also five other
young SA Olympic class sailors. We’ve also secured a dollar-based
funding scholarship through the IOC. Through all of these partnerships
and agreements we’ve steadily built up the funding of the campaign and
14 August 2016 SAILING | www.sailing.co.za