In a recent phone conversation with WindCheck, Dean Brenner, Chairman of the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team, reflected on the 2008 Olympic Regatta and discussed plans for boosting the medal tally in England in 2012. The Olympics is always a challenging experience, and Qingdao is a challenging place to sail…light air, big current and ocean chop. I think the best people realize that wherever they decide to hold the Olympics is where they’re giving the medals out and if you’re going to win a medal you’ve got to perform there.
Our athletes were ready. We had a very organized, very cohesive team, who’d traveled a lot together. They were all at what we called their ‘China weight,’ with everyone on the light end of their scale. Everybody knows that experience matters at the Games – period. We showed up with 14 first-timers, out of 18, with an average age of 29.
One of the new realities of Olympic sailing is that there are more ‘combined’ events. With all the Grade 1 regattas, test events in the two years prior to the Games, plus two world championships, the team comes together in a large group several times a year. We’ve really worked hard at building that collective culture, and that’s something we’ll continue to work on.
Our 2004 team was a great, experienced team. We won a Gold and a Silver medal and had three fifth place finishes. But other than a few returning sailors, that whole team disappeared. We were building a team from scratch. Now, we have a Gold medalist [Anna Tunnicliffe] and a Silver medalist [Zach Railey] who want to make Olympic sailing a big part of their lives, and a number of other young, talented sailors who have indicated a willingness to come back!These last four years were a major turning point for Olympic sailing in the U.S. We made our program smaller this quad, cutting the national team from five deep to three deep, and we’re thinking about shrinking it some more in an effort to concentrate our resources - not just funding, but coaching and other assets. We’re changing the funding model and the commitment expectations, and sailors are changing the way they campaign, the way they take care of themselves and their fitness level. I think the ramifications of these changes will be felt for the next 20 to 25 years. I want it to be really, really hard to make the team because I want someone to be able to hold their head up and say ‘I made the team and I’m proud.’ Once you’re there, I want there to be a lot waiting for you.
One of the things most in need of change was that historically, the Chairman went through one quad and once they’d seen a full Olympic cycle they went away. That said, it’s a hard, timeconsuming job and getting someone to do it twice is never an easy task. It’s not just me coming back– the entire Olympic Sailing Committee is coming back. We have a very talented leadership group. One thing we did much more aggressively this past quad was paying for performance. Basically, those who performed best earned the most, and that’s not going to change. We think of ourselves as investors and we have to put our assets where they’ll give the greatest return on investment.
We’re going to keep focusing the resources and making the athletes compete for it. The idea is to have greater resources available for a smaller group of sailors, thereby increasing the intensity of training and support. We’re taking a hard look at our sponsor program. Not only what we can offer our sponsors, but what athletes can do to fulfill sponsor relations.
We’re not only narrowing the focus of the top end of the team, we’re broadening the youth development funnel. One goal is to identify young talent and make sure there are opportunities. We don’t need 50 new kids a year. We need two or three serious athletes that are ready to commit. Another goal is to have Olympic athletes be role models who’ll say, “Hey, if you’re serious about sailing, here’s how to do it right.”
Riverside, New York and Annapolis Yacht Clubs all held fabulous events dedicated to our program, which brought in new forms of support and exposed us to more people than we otherwise would’ve been. Gary Jobson was at all three events, and nearly all of the team was present at each one. They really got the opportunity to feel like they’re part of the program…and they are. We’d like to create a series of three or four events per year for the next Olympic cycle, and we’re looking for partner yacht clubs - who’ll be part of our team - to host them.
Some of our athletes met their goals in Qingdao and some didn’t, but what I’m most proud of was how this very hard-working, very respectable group represented themselves and their country. At the same time, I and the team are not satisfied with where we are. We’ve come a long way, but we have more to do. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!