Olympic Goldrush
Back in March 2020, the British Sailing team was riding high. Several of its sailors were world champions and team bosses Mark Robinson and Ian Walker had the confidence in the athletes to announce selection before almost every other sport, giving the sailors plenty of time to prepare. In the end, they had far more time than they wanted. Just months after selection, the pandemic changed life worldwide and put the Games back a year. The sailors were allowed special dispensation, as elite athletes, to train after lockdown#1, but travel restrictions and a lack of international competition meant that everyone would go into what was still being callled Tokyo2020 in the dark about their rivals. Uncertainty about whether or not the Games would in fact take place didn’t help, but the sailors trained on, preparing as best they could for the biggest regatta of their lives.
The British Sailing Team had recce’d the Olympic venue in Enoshima just after the Rio Games. It was clearly a strong wind venue, with a likelihood of big waves. Crews in all classes formed and trained accordingly, but when it came, at last, to the Olympic regatta week, a tropical cyclone off Japan caused unsettled weather and unusually light winds.
The conditions would catch out sailors from all nations, but as spectators around the world saw in the early days of August, the GBR sailors were dominant. Even those who didn’t medal ticked off great race wins and put in performances that bode well for the future and will be priceless inspiration for younger sailors. The legacy of Tokyo2020 for British sailing will surely last long, as male and female role models showed a clear pathway from youth sailing to the very top of the sport.
Over the next few pages we re-live some of those great moments, we hear from the sailors and we hear from RYA Performance Manager Mark Robinson – how does he rate his sailors’ performances?
470 WOMEN, Hannah Mills (helm) and Eilidh McKintyre
With her second gold and third medal overall from three successive Olympics, Hannah Mills became the most successful ever female Olympic sailor. Meanwhile Eilidh matched her father’s gold from Seoul, when he won the Star class in 1988. Hannah, 33, from Cardiff, said: “It’s been massive. I mean it’s been one of the hardest weeks of my life and I’m sure for Eilidh as well. Just every day, feeling sick, not being able to eat, just nerves building up and yeah, the emotion. But we’ve done it, we’ve done what we came here to do and it’s amazing.”
Commenting on the record, she said: “I’ve had two incredible crews to sail with
