Andy Rice Covid - 19 meant being at the Olympics this time around was a hugely surreal but ultimately rewarding experience
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orking at Tokyo 2020 was one of the strangest experiences I’ve had, and certainly the strangest of the four Olympic Regattas at which I’ve reported. If I hadn’t been employed by World Sailing as a writer, there’s no way I’d have got there under my own steam. Three consecutive days of PCR tests (cost approx £400) before we were even allowed to get on the plane, let alone five hours stuck in Tokyo airport until I was ‘free’ to begin my three days of quarantine in a hotel room not big enough to swing a cat o’ nine tails. Not that I’m wanting to sound like a whinger. Because once the Olympic Regatta got going, it was incredibly exciting to be there amongst all the high and lows of the competition, capturing the emotion of the sailors as they came ashore and did their compulsory walk through the ‘Mixed Zone’. This is the area were we, the media, get our chance to talk to the athletes soon after they come ashore. Although they’re under no compulsion to talk to us, only to pass through the zone. It’s incredibly frustrating, but understandable, when sailors refuse to stop and walk briskly past towards the exit. When everyone’s wearing masks, as we had to do all the time except when eating or drinking, it’s even easier for people to ignore you. In that sense, this was a very impersonal Games. Strange to see people you knew but unable to do anything more than a fist bump by way of greeting. My observation from standing in Mixed Zones at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Games is that the sailors who turn up to talk to the media every day, regardless of what kind of day they’ve had, are the most likely to go on to win medals. There is probably some false logic here, so you can take the observation with a pinch of salt, but my experience has been that the sailors who talk to the media even when they’ve had a terrible day - rather than making a beeline for the exit - have developed a level of control over their emotions that sets them apart from most their competitors. The Brits were generally very good at showing up for media interviews, which of course is much easier when you’re doing well! But every sailor suffered setbacks during the competition at Enoshima, and windsurfer Emma Wilson was one that stood
out to me as always smiling however her day had gone. When you’ve scored two bullets and then a third on the final outing of the afternoon, only to discover you’ve been disqualified from the last race for breaking the start line too soon, it would be easy to focus on the negative. To rue the missed opportunity. Emma never did this, not even when she came out of the Medal Race with ‘just’ a bronze medal when the gold had been well within reach. Asked if she regretted missing out on gold, she reminded everyone there that it’s a privilege for any sailor to win a medal of any colour. Emma was relieved to have broken her run of fourth places in a number of major RS:X events over the past two years so to come away with a bronze medal was a source of huge relief and elation. A bronze medal for Marit Bouwmeester on the other hand was a source of great angst and regret. The defending Olympic Champion from Rio 2016 came to the Laser Radial regatta fully expectant of repeating gold, but the Dutchwoman made errors - such as also falling foul of the U flag at the start - and said she would never forgive herself for those missed opportunities. It’s almost as if Marit attached no value to the bronze. As winner of a silver at London 2012, gold at Rio 2016 and now bronze at Tokyo 2020, I said to her that most people would consider her to be the ‘three-time Olympic medallist, Marit Bouwmeester’. I asked her how many medals she considered she had won. “One,” she replied. To Marit, gold is all that matters. At each of the medallists’ press conferences, when I asked for a show of hands from the medallists as to who would be back in three years’ time for Paris 2024, I had very few hands go up in any of the 10 events. This is hardly surprising. It’s a cruel question to ask the sailors when they’ve only 10 minutes earlier been awarded their medals at one Olympics, their faces still encrusted with salt from the Pacific Ocean. And already, some pesky journalist is asking them: ‘So what next?’. But the question elicits interesting responses. And in the case of the Laser Radial medallists, neither the new Olympic Champion Anne-Marie Rindom or the silver medalist Josefin Olsson would commit to Paris there and then. Fair enough, only to be expected. But my greatest surprise was to see Marit’s hand go up straight away. She wants that ‘second’ medal, another gold to go with the ‘only’ medal she has won, the gold from Rio 2016. Talk about unstinting commitment. In that moment Marit reestablished herself as the favourite to win gold in Paris 2024.
PHOTO R COMMONS
‘STRANGE TO SEE PEOPLE YOU KNEW BUT UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING MORE THAN A FIST BUMP BY WAY OF GREETING’
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OCTOBER 2021 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
ANDY RICE As a sailing journalist and TV commentator Andy has unparalleled knowledge of the dinghy sailing scene, from grassroots to Olympic level
