Enoshima Olympics

If experience has a tone, it would sound like three-time Olympian and 470 sailor Stu McNay—steady, measured, with a positive, almost Mr. Rogers feeling. “Each Games has a unique flavor,” he says, the day before last spring’s 470 European Championships, one of the rare events he and crew, Dave Hughes, have been able to use to prepare for this month’s delayed 2020 Olympic regatta in Enoshima, Japan. “It reflects many things and who you are at that time.”

McNay and the rest of the U.S. Sailing Team have spent the last year doubling down on their campaigns, creatively analyzing the mental and mechanical elements in the context of a global pandemic. Not surprisingly, this has been no easy task in light of the spattering of on-again, off-again events this year combined with travel restrictions that have kept most Americans out of Europe at same time many of their competitors have been able to train together.

Then, of course, there’s the team’s recent history. after dominating Olympic sailing for decades, the U.S. Team has underperformed of late, to say the least: winning just a single bronze medal in the Finn class at the 2016 Games in Rio and coming away empty handed at the London Olympics in 2012.

So, is the American team ready? Are these same sailors who have devoted years to their campaigns ready to “peak” when the Games begin on July 23? The answers aren’t simple. However, the vibe across the US Sailing Team as a whole is that if they weren’t ready to peak at the Games last summer, they’re a lot closer now.

“Even small changes make big differences,” McNay says with respect to his own recent training. Th is will