August 17, 2008

The Thrill of Victory The Agony of Defeat.

 Olympic Sailing Gets Crazy

          Thank you Jim McKay for those great words.

          Today on the Olympic sailing racecourse we witnessed plenty of thrilling victories, and some agonizing defeats. It was an emotional roller coaster out there. For the first time in this Olympic regatta the wind came in strong. The waves were gigantic. The sailing was hard. And with so much on the line for 30 boats out on the three medal courses it was a day few will forget for a long time. Let's start out with the thrill of victory.

          Zach Railey was a hot Optimist dinghy sailor who excelled at an early age. He was known as a hothead for a time, but as the years passed he matured, and so did his drive to win an Olympic medal.

          This kid worked as hard as anyone I've seen.

          He grew to be 6'4" and 200 pounds, which meant he was too big for most dinghies. So he raced a Finn, a boat suited to large-framed sailors. At first, Zach was a tail ender. But month after month, he worked on his technique and his conditioning, becoming single-minded about excelling.

          This week at the Olympics, Zach Railey joined America's elite sailors who are medal-winners. He challenged four-time Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie all week long. In the end the veteran British sailor prevailed, and Railey, at 24, came close and most certainly will be back. At 31, Ainslie will have difficulty maintaining his dominance.

          Ainslie is a joy to watch sail. The man is a machine upwind working the boat through the waves, and downwind he is even faster relative to the fleet. In the Finn class you are allowed to rock the boat, and pump the sails when the wind is over 11 knots.

          Today the wind was blowing 20 and Ainslie surfed every wave with ease. He trims the main directly off the boom, which is extremely tiring. He placed second in his race today and claimed his third gold medal, to compliment the silver he won as a 19-year-old in the Laser class. Look for Ainslie to jump into a Star in future years. He will be out to pass all-time Olympic great Paul Elvstrom of Denmark. Elvstrom is the only sailor with four gold medals.

          At the other end of the spectrum are the defeats, today's were particularly painful. Consider the case of the American women sailors in the Yngling class. Skipper Sally Barkow was considered to be one of America's best medal prospects going into the games. She and her crew Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi never quite found their groove throughout the first 10 races, but they were standing one point out of a bronze going into the medal race.

          Now comes the agony.

          With the wind blowing 20 or more knots, and the visibility extremely limited, the Americans got off to a clean start and were sailing fast on the first leg. Their rivals from Spain were comfortably behind a few minutes into the race. Things were looking good.

          Approaching the windward mark, Sally tacked a little early, just short of the lay line. This is a mistake that amateur sailors make all the time. But the current was ripping hard, forcing the United States toward the mark as they approached. With two boats directly windward they could not tack.

          As they luffed to clear the buoy, the Netherlands blocked their wind and the U.S. slipped sideways, right into the turning mark. With that error they had to perform a penalty turn. By time they unraveled the mess they were well behind Spain.

          And still the Americans fought back.

          As Barkow and her crew approached the windward mark for the second time at the end of the third leg, they had caught up to Monica Azon's Spain Spanish boat and that of Greece's Sofia Bekatorou, the 470 gold-medal winner in 2004. But once again the Americans tacked just short of the windward mark and had to make two quick clearing tacks to avoid hitting it a second time. And that was it. Four years of hard work were over. Mighty Casey had struck out.

          I hope that Sally, Deb, and Carrie give it another try. They are young and will be even stronger in the future. 

          For the record, the British sailors Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb, and Pippa Wilson finished second in today's medal race, handily earning the popular trio a gold medal in the Yngling class. Though Ayton and Webb won gold in Athens, they did so with Shirley Robertson skippering their boat.

          Ayton shifted gears from being a sail trimmer to steering. It is rare to see a switch like that. She is 28, and like teammate Ainslie, will be back for the London Games in 2012, when the sailing competition will take place in Ayton's hometown of Weymouth.

          And finally, we must discuss the 49er race.

          I have been around sailing for a long time. And every time I think I have seen it all something new happens. Today's 49er medal race was simply bizarre. In fact, it was the ugliest race I have seen in my 50 years on the water. Talk about agony, this was agony! After a few hours delay the race committee sent the 10 boats out to the racecourse. They tuned up while the Finns were finishing their race. It looked normal, but then trouble developed even before the race started.

          The first bizarre event happened when Denmark's Jonas Warrer and Martin Kirketerp Ibsen, owners of a comfortable 11-point lead going into the medal race, broke their mast during their tune up. They went back and borrowed a boat from the Croatian team that was out of the running. Denmark ended up seventh in the race in their borrowed boat to take the Gold, but not before being protested by the Measurement Committee. Can you switch boats? It will be interesting to hear the outcome of this dispute.

          Back out on the water Americans, Tim Wadlow and Chris Rast needed some breaks, but were still in the hunt for a medal.

         Starting in 20-knot winds and seas that seemed to hide the boats at times the fleet took off. Wadlow got a clean start and was sailing fast. About halfway up, he capsized and we did not see him again for a long time. Meanwhile, Spain's Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez were in a strong position to defend the gold-medal they won four years ago in Athens.

          Until they too capsized.

          Suddenly, the Spaniards found themselves swimming and struggling to right their boat. More boats followed suit: Australia, then Britain, then Austria. There was no end to it. The Italians took the lead and was sailing well, but they capsized, too. And with every boat dropping, the Wadlow's boat was unfathomably back in the hunt, as was Spain.

          And then both capsized, again, as did every other boat in the fleet, again. I thought the best solution was taken by French crew, Emmanuel Dyen and Yann Rocherieux. They simply took their mainsail down and completed the course under just the jib.

          The 49er was proving to be un-seaworthy for such harsh sailing conditions, and as fast as it had begun, the race evolved into a demolition derby. It was questionable whether the Race Committee should have even sailed the race?

          The Americans never did finish the race; neither did Austria.

When the foam finally settled, Denmark had miraculously reclaimed first place         in the overall standings. Spain was in second, with Germany third.

          The Measurement Team's protest is pending as of this writing. I am sure there will be plenty of discussion about the use of the 49er for future Olympics.

          Tomorrow, the 470s are scheduled for their medal race. No Americans made the cut for the medal race. At this point, the best U.S. medal hopes rest with Anna Tunnicliffe in the Laser Radial, currently standing in second, and the most compelling American story of the Games, 58-year-old John Dane leads the Star class after three races. Seven qualifier runs and the medal race are still ahead of Dane and his crew - son-in-law Austin Sperry - but so far the pair are showing good form.

          Tune in daily starting at 1 a.m. ET for NBCOlympics.com's ongoing live coverage of the Olympic sailing competition. It is hard to imagine what else could possibly happen, but I have a feeling there will be more thrills, spills and agony.

          Jim McKay knew what he was talking about.