2004 Olympic Sailing

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Well the 2004 Olympic Games have come and gone and now it's time to sit back and see how the US faired against other nations on the water in Athens. With the US getting two medals out of a possible 11 different classes, people are starting to wonder if the US needs to change the way our sailors train. The US is one of three country teams with entrants in each boat type.

2004 Olympic Sailing
by Oakley Jones III

Here is how the US Sailing Team did in Athens:

Class Skipper/Crew     Place        Medal

470 men Foerster/Burnham     1 of 27        Gold Medal

Tornado Lovell/Ogletree     2 of 17        Silver Medal

Europe Meg Gaillard     14 of 25        No Medal

Laser Mark Mendelblatt     8 of 42        No Medal

Finn Kevin Hall     11 of 25        No Medal

470 women McDowell/Kinsolving     5 of 20        No Medal

Yngling Cronin/Filter/Haberland     10 of 16        No Medal

Mistral Men Peter Wells     28 of 35        No Medal

Mistral Women Lanee Beashel     16 of 26        No Medal

Stars Cayard/Trinter     5 of 17        No Medal

49er Wadlow/Spaulding     5 of 19        No Medal

The team of Foerster/Burnham in the men's 470 class was the highlight of the US Sailing Team's stay in Athens. Paul Foerster, 41, and Kevin Brunham, 48, are the "old guys" in the 470 class and the oldest members of the US Sailing Team. This was their 1st gold medal in a career that has spanned many classes and many teammates.

Going into the last race of the regatta they had a medal position sewn up, but what color medal depended on how they finished compared to the team from Great Britan who trailed by two points. Foerster/Burnham pounced on team GBR at the beginning of the race and forced them back in the pack. At the end of the race, Foerster/Burnham were over a minute behind the next place boat in second to last while the GBR was in last. Kevin Burnham was so excited that he did a back flip off the boat as soon as they crossed the finish line with the gold medal.

Here is how the US did in relation to the rest of the countries that won medals in Athens:

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total Medals
Great Britain	2	1	2	5
Brazil	2			2
Spain	1	2		3
Austria	1	1		2
Greece	1	1		2
United States	1	1		2
France	1	1		2
Israel	1			1
Norway	1			1
Ukraine		2		2
Canada			1	1
China		1		1
Czech Republic		1		1
Denmark			2	2
Argentina			1	1
Italy			1	1
Japan			1	1
Poland			1	1
Slovenia			1	1
Sweden			1	1

Israel made history in this Olympic Regatta by winning its first Gold Medal in any sport. (Gal Fridman won the Men's Mistral windsurfer event.)

In the US the sailors are mostly supported through their own fund raising efforts. Teams have to spend a lot of time fund raising, which takes time away from training. Great Britan's team is supported through their national lottery and their team is already training for China in 2008.

Many people in the United States sailing community are calling for a dramatic overhaul of how the US fields it's sailing team. Right now US sailors are mostly on their own if they want to head overseas to get the type of competition they need. The selection of boats for 2008 is happening soon so hopefully our sailors can start training right away. Until the United States changes the way it trains and funds it's sailors our teams will be destined to suffer the same mediocre results.