It’s been a dream of mine to compete in The Games since I was 8 years old, meeting Ben Ainslie in Bermuda. Not many know, but my amazing mum Christine also represented Bermuda in Athens 2004, and I look to follow in her footsteps.
The first two years of my Olympic campaign (2020-2022) were, frankly, a mess. Trying to navigate travel through COVID restrictions, cancelled events, and online uni all while working full time in Bermuda to try and fund my sailing temporarily derailed all progress towards my goal. Fortunately, I was able to travel for competition at the end of 2021, which re-ignited my fire and provided a wake-up call that something had to change. In 2022 I stirred up some financial support and got over to Europe for some training with a strong group and some of the World Cup events. I moved back to Sydney in August of that year. From this point onwards the program was professional.
With Sydney as a base for the ensuing two years, I trained with local talent out of DBSC, using weekend racing and local events across the East Coast to sharpen my skills during the summers, at times having the privilege of joining the Australian Sailing Team in trainings. Perhaps underestimated by master’s sailors is the amount of physical preparation required to perform at the highest level. In 2023, alongside 390 hours on the water were 280 hours of land training between the bike, gym and hiking bench, not including mobility, recovery and physio work (classic Laser back injury). I find Sydney to be a great environment to lock into this fitness program.
Qualifying for The Games requires two things: 1) Qualifying the country by placing well in one of the 4 events offering an Olympic spot, and 2) being the top ILCA7 in your country (as only 1 boat per country is allowed). For the Aussies, the second one is the challenge, as you basically need to be the best in the world in order to have a chance of replacing Matt Wearn. Sailing for Bermuda, my challenge was securing the coveted country spot. I came very close at the PanAm Games in Chile (October 2023) but lost to Aruba on the final day. The aptly named Last Chance Regatta in France in April was the final event with country spots available. I sailed well, leading after Day 1 and qualifying for the medal race to finish 7th overall. It was with mixed emotions that I learned this great performance was not quite enough to secure the fourth and final country spot for Paris.
We move on. After 3 months off and a nasty foot injury in June, I am now back in Sydney. My preparations have already begun for LA 2028. This time I have time (a full four years), experience, connections, many lessons learnt and hopefully slightly better funding on my side. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to represent DBSC on the world stage and be part of our unparalleled club program. Feel free to ask for racing tips when you see me around the club, I’ll be in Sydney for a while this time around.
