2003 Pan Am Games Team - Sailing
Boardsailors Peter Wells and Lanee Butler

Name:

Peter Wells

Class

Mistral Men

Position

Skipper

Pan Am Games Team:

2003

US Sailing Team:

1998-2003

Member of:

Santa Monica & Newport Harbor Yacht Clubs

High School:

 La Canada High School, 1992

College:

 UC-Irvine, 1996 Political Science

Birthdate:

 28 August 1974

Birthplace:

 Paoli, Penn.

Hometown:

Newport Beach, Calif.

Sailing Since Age:

 8

Sailing Achievements

Three-time ICSA All-American
Last January, Wells quit his job at a prominent public relations firm and began living his dream. The 29-year-old began traveling to Europe to windsurf in some of the most beautiful waters imaginable. He also formally committed to an Olympic campaign for 2004.

"I always think of the swimmer, the track and field athletes and the speed skaters doing the same laps every single day at the same arena," says Wells. "I am lucky. I get to sail on the ocean, which is beautiful, endless and not confined by lines."

Well’s love for the ocean started when he was very young. Born in Pennsylvania, he moved to California while still an infant. As a young boy he remembers heading to the coast on the weekends to sail. "It just started out as a pastime and I got hooked on it. It became everything I thought about all week long." As soon as he graduated from high school, Wells headed straight for the coast, enrolling at the University of California-Irvine where he majored in Political Science and became a three-time ICSA All-American (’94,’95,’96).

Wells switched to windsurfing after sailing "really hard for ten years" and nearly burning out on it. "Windsurfing gave me the new challenge I needed. Although it’s considered sailing and is raced on a lot of the same courses, I think it is a lot harder. It’s much more physical, especially the Olympic class, because you are continuously pumping the sail throughout the race. Everything seems amplified by 10."

Wells finished third at the 2000 Olympic Team Trials in the Mistral class. A member of the US Sailing Team for six years, he has been the top-ranked men’s boardsailor in the country for the last three years. By quitting his job and focusing solely on training and fund raising, he hopes to catch up on the international scene. The Pan Am Games arena is the perfect place for him to compare his skills to those on the world stage.

Name:

Lanee Butler

Class

Mistral Women

Position

Skipper

Pan Am Games Team:

1991, 1995, 1999, 2003

US Sailing Team:

 1990-1998

Member of:

High School:

 Dana Hills High School, 1988

College:

 UC Irvine, 1993 BA Fine Arts

Birthdate:

3 June 1970

Birthplace:

 Manhasset, N.Y.

Hometown:

Aliso Viejo, Calif.

Sailing Since Age:

10

Sailing Achievements

Three-time Olympian 
(’00, ’96, ’92)
1999 Pan Am Games Gold Medallist, Canada
1995 Pan Am Games Bronze Medallist, Argentina
1994 Goodwill Games Bronze Medallist, Russia
1991 Pan American Games Gold Medallist, Cuba
US SAILING's USOC Female Athlete of the Year (’00, ‘99, ‘94, '93, '91)
Of all the members on the U.S.A.’s 2003 Pan Am Games Team-Sailing, Lanee Butler stands out as the one with the most experience at the elite level of competition. Not only is she a three-time Pan Am Games medallist, but she is also a three-time Olympian. Her first trip to the Olympics (Barcelona in 1992), came a year after she had won the gold medal at the ’91 Pan Am Games in Cuba and was named US SAILING’s USOC Female Athlete of the Year in ’91. It was an accolade she would receive again in ‘93, ‘94, ’99 and 2000.

Butler went on to win a bronze medal at the ’95 Pan Am Games in Argentina, and made her second trip to the Olympics in 1996 (Savannah). In ’99, she won her second Pan Am Games gold medal in Canada and sailed smoothly on to her third showing at the 2000 Olympics (Sydney).

All of these accomplishments were completed by the age of 30. Now 33, Butler is newly married to professional sailor Adam Beashel and calls Australia home. Originally from Manhasset, N.Y., she grew up in Dana Point, California. In 1994, as if to stake her claim there, she competed in the Newport to Ensenada (Mexico) Race -- the first boardsailor ever to do so. She finished in 29 ˝ hours, sailing through shark infested waters off San Diego where a young woman had been attacked just prior to the event. She then repeated the feat in ’95, shaving time off her previous record.

Butler’s adventurous spirit is her trademark -- she crewed aboard Maiden II when it broke the 24-hour distance record in 2002 -- and it combines with the experience reflected by her impressive sailing resume to position her for a podium finish, once again, at the Pan Am Games.