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For Immediate
Release
Contact: Jan Harley, Media Pro, 401.849.0220
2004
U.S. OLYMPIC SAILING TEAM
COUNTDOWN TO OPENING CEREMONIES
PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (August 4, 2004) – It's
official. The 18 members of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Sailing Team – winners,
respectively, of the U.S. Olympic Trials in the 11 sailing events – are
now “Olympians” after completing the U.S. Olympic Committee’s (Colorado
Springs, Colo.) Team Processing held this past Saturday at the American
College of Greece. The U.S.A.’s 2004 Sailing Olympians will now always be
“Olympians,” as ex-, past- and former- do not apply to the title these
sailors have worked years to attain.
While most of the sailors have been in Athens for several
weeks, and in some cases several months, they have spent the last few days
together living in the Athlete’s Village and moving boats and equipment
into the
Aghios
Kosmas Sailing Centre to begin the
final leg of their Olympic journey. The USOC Team Processing – which
included briefings, photo opportunities, credentialing and uniform
distribution – was all precisely coordinated to prepare the sailors to
represent the U.S.A. at the 2004 Olympic Regatta.
The sailing venue
–
located in Glyfadha, an upscale suburb to the south of Athens
–
officially opened for the Games on August 1. For the next week, the
sailors will make the final adjustments to their equipment and go through
the measurement process before the first official practice races begin on
August 12. Laser sailors, competing in the only event that utilizes
equipment provided by the organizers, participated in their draw for boats
yesterday.
Sailing’s 2004 Olympians:
Meg Gaillard (Jamestown, R.I./Pelham, N.Y.) in the Europe; Kevin Hall
(Bowie, Md./Ventura, Calif.) in the Finn; Paul Foerster (Garland, Texas)
and Kevin Burnham (Miami, Fla.) in the 470 Men’s event; Katie McDowell
(Barrington, R.I.) and Isabelle Kinsolving (New York, N.Y.) in the 470
Women’s event; Tim Wadlow (San Diego, Calif.) and Pete Spaulding (Miami,
Fla.) in the 49er; Mark Mendelblatt (St. Petersburg, Fla.) in the Laser;
Peter Wells (Newport Beach/La Canada, Calif.) in the Mistral Men’s event;
Lanee Butler Beashel (Aliso Viejo, Calif.) in the Mistral Women’s event;
Paul Cayard (Kentfield, Calif.) and Phil Trinter (Lorain, Ohio/Port
Washington, N.Y.) in the Star; John Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and Charlie
Ogletree (Houston, Texas/Columbia, N.C.) in the Tornado;
and
Carol
Cronin (Jamestown, R.I.), Liz Filter (Stevensville, Md.) and Nancy
Haberland (Annapolis, Md.) in the Yngling.
(Complete bio information for each athlete, along with detailed
information on each event, is available at
www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicGames/2004/)
The support staff for the U.S.A.’s 2004 Olympic Sailing Team: Team Leader
Fred Hagedorn (Chicago, Ill.); US SAILING’s Olympic Director Jonathan
Harley (Middletown, R.I.); Boatwright Carl Eichenlaub (San Diego, Calif.);
Head Olympic Coach Gary Bodie (Hampton, Va.); US Sailing Team Coaches
Luther Carpenter (New Orleans, La.) and Skip Whyte (Warren, R.I.); and
coaches Jay Glaser (Long Beach, Calif.), Pierre Jeangirard (Bishop,
Calif.), James Lyne (Warren, Vt.), and Tony Rey (Portsmouth, R.I.);
US SAILING's Olympic Programs Manager Katie Richardson (Barrington, R.I.)
and US Sailing Team Press Liaison Barby MacGowan (Middletown, R.I.).
Olympic Diary: Jonathan Harley, US SAILING’s Olympic Director,
will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the sailors’ Olympic experience
through his Olympic Diary. Now attending the Olympic Games for the sixth
time in his 24-year career, Harley first provided daily reports from the
2000 Olympics in Sydney that drew a regular audience of sailors and
non-sailors interested in a glimpse at the daily challenges of the Games.
Follow the story from Athens at
www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicGames/2004/
Program the TIVO: Television coverage of the sailing events will be
hosted by Gary Jobson (Annapolis, Md.), with race reports scheduled to air
every scheduled race day on the Bravo cable channel beginning August 14,
and continuing through August 26.
The planned coverage will rotate classes every day and will
feature one or two races each day, often with on board cameras. The
“non-featured” classes will have some, but not complete, daily coverage.
The half-hour of programming will air
between
midnight and 1:00 a.m. in the Eastern and Pacific time zones. Viewers in
the Central and Mountain time zones will follow the Eastern time zone
(i.e. 11:00 p.m. Central; 10:00 p.m. Mountain).
On August 28, CNBC will
show two hours of Olympic sailing coverage from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.
Eastern and Pacific. Check local listings as this schedule is subject to
change and may be affected by the performance of the athletes.
The
Games of the XXVIII Olympiad will run from August 13-29, 2004, with
sailing taking place on the waters of the Saronic Gulf.
News and
photos of the U.S. sailors throughout the Games will be online at
www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicGames/2004/
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