Lanee Butler Beashel - At the conclusion of Syndey’s Olympic Games, Lanee Butler announced that after a decade as the top U.S. women’s windsurfer she would no longer race competitively.  Flash forward three years and her name, now a little longer with the addition of husband Adam Beashel’s surname, is back in boldface after a seemingly effortless return to the sport. 

As she did four years ago, Lanee turned in a flawless performance – winning the first 13 races of the Mistral Women's event at U.S. Olympic Team Trials – that allowed her to sit ashore during the final race of the series and contemplate a fourth trip to the Olympic Games. 

"It's not one of those 'been there done that' things for me," she said at the conclusion of the Trials (held in November 2003). "I will be going to perform the best that I can. It was in Greece that I competed in my first international regatta, representing my country at the 1986 youth worlds. So I feel that I will have come full circle to be back in Athens."

Just three months earlier Lanee competed in the 2003 Pan Am Games held in the Dominican Republic, where she medaled for the fourth time (Gold - ’03, ’99, ’91; Bronze – ’95).  Her win of the 2003 Pan Am Games Gold Medal came after eight first-place finishes had made it mathematically impossible for anyone to catch her in the final two races of the series.  "I'm ecstatic I won the gold medal, because I haven't competed in an international competition since the Sydney Olympics," she said at the time while noting that she “came here not knowing how I'd compare and found I'm exactly where I need to be."

During her absence from the U.S. boardsailing scene, Lanee was still on-the-water – most notably as a crew aboard Maiden II when it broke the 24-hour distance record in June, 2002.  That, however, was not her first foray into distance racing.  In 1994 she was the first boardsailor ever to sail the 125-mile Newport (Calif.) to Ensenada Race (Mexico), which she finished in 29 1/2 hours, sailing through shark infested waters off San Diego where a young woman had been attacked just prior to the event.  She shaved eight hours off her time when she made the run for a second time in 1995.

Lanee has the distinction of being the first and only woman to have represented the U.S.A. in the Olympic boardsailing events:  in Barcelona ('92) she placed fifth despite winning two races; in Savannah ('96) she placed 11^th; and Sydney ('00), where she posted her best Olympic performance - a fourth. 

In 2000, Lanee was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up.  She replied “still happy, a lot wiser, and accomplishing and starting new challenges.”  Twenty-two years since she first took up a board (at age 12), Lanee’s next challenge will be her fourth Olympics.

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