Diary
August 15, 2007
Dean Brenner
Team Leader, Chairman of the US Olympic Sailing Program
Hurry up and wait was the mantra for the day.
We had light and variable winds today and very little racing. We were scheduled for racing in all classes except Laser, Radial and Yngling. But the only classes to get races in were the 470 Women and the 49er. All other races were abandoned. The lucky classes were allowed to wait out the postponements on shore. But some classes were called out on the water and had to endure long postponements on the water, under the hot sun. Not fun!
Long postponements are frustrating because we came here to race. But they also afford you some valuable time to do a number of things. Some athletes choose to simply relax and stay out of the sun. Others use the time to get loose under the care of our Performance Enhancement Team (PET) staff, Shawn Hunt and Mark Kenna. Olympic-level sailing creates plenty of nagging little physical issues, like muscle tightening -- and occasionally some nagging BIG ones as well, like food poisoning and chronic muscle issues. Quality time with the PET staff is always time well spent.
Some of our coaches and our weather specialist Jennifer Lilly use the time to continue to assess the weather and current. Every day is valuable.
Postponements also allow our boat wright Donnie Brennan to continue to tick off the items on his boat repair “to do” list. There is always something to do with equipment. Something can always be replaced or repaired. Our athletes push their equipment hard and keeping it at an Olympic caliber state of readiness takes time and focus.
There’s always something to do at an Olympic Test Event. But what we all want to do is race. And let’s hope we can do that tomorrow.
We’ll write more in the next day or so. In the meantime, please make sure to follow along with the event at www.ussailing.org/olympics/qingdao/qingdao.htm.
Sail fast,
Dean Brenner
Chairman, US Olympic Sailing Program
Team Leader, 2007 Olympic Test Event