Marcus Lynch, High Performance Director, on the Status of US Olympic Sailing with Sights on LA28
A few months ago, we completed the Paris 2024 Olympics where Ian Barrows and Hans Henken secured the USA’s first sailing medal since Rio 2016 and the first medal in the 49er since Sydney 2000. Up next is Los Angeles 2028 – a home Games and the first summer Olympics in the U.S. since Atlanta 1996. Our efforts to put forth the strongest team possible in LA28 is going to take a village that extends far beyond Olympic class sailors. We have an immense opportunity that will be here before we know it and want to bring you into the loop as you are a part of our Team USA.
I’d like to take this opportunity to update you on the status of the Olympic efforts within US Sailing, where we’re headed, and address a few FAQs along the way. It’s easy to get caught up in our own corner with the flurry of work that needs to be done, but it’s important to surface from the noise and bring our community up to speed.
Paris 2024 is in the books, so what happens now? Simply put, the cycle begins again. The playing field resets and it’s anyone’s game as we restart the program from the 13 athletes who competed in Paris to the now 100+ athletes who have their sights set on LA28 and Brisbane 2032. We start with mass training efforts as athletes shuffle partners, goals, boats, and boards.
And for the first time ever, we have a solid pathway that helps athletes plan their steps to success through clearly defined goals. For the first time in US Sailing history, the new Performance Pathway, launched on December 12, 2024, formally connects the US Sailing Team to the Olympic Development Program (ODP) and into the Youth Team.
Historically, the US Sailing Team has operated as a national team working with tiers 1 and 2. While this structure remains intact, we are now also extending resources into ODP and making it very clear to athletes what they need to do to unlock those resources. We created the pathway based off real athlete scenarios — analyzing data from athletes over many previous cycles, identifying the criteria determining how/when they qualified for the US Sailing Team, and adjusting qualification thresholds for certain classes that may experience greater levels of difficulty because of their popularity worldwide.
The new pathway is likened to those of other successful Olympic sailing nations around the world, but tailored to the unique needs of American sailors, notably with concurrent collegiate careers in mind.
This pathway is already in motion under the expert guidance of our Olympic Development Director, Rosie Chapman, who recently led four domestic ODP training camps in Miami for 105 athletes. If you’re a Miami local, you likely saw us drilling hours on the water for a total of 20 days this winter.
Beyond the sailing, we organized a comprehensive suite of resources to create a training oasis that allowed athletes to immerse themselves in life as professional athletes. US Sailing Team and ODP athletes were supported with recovery sessions by US Sailing Team physiotherapists, excellent coaching with multiple coaches for large fleets, guest lectures across a variety of topics that touched on different parts of an athlete’s Olympic campaign needs, and group workouts each morning. Time on the water was the priority, but the time ashore was filled with additional enrichment elements.
Soon we’ll return to the European circuit with the season opener in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, for the annual Princesa Sofía regatta. New this year, the Princesa Sofía provides an additional opportunity for athletes to qualify for the US Sailing Team (Tiers 1 and 2) instead of just their annual Olympic Class world championship. This event is in its 54th year and attracts top athletes worldwide, so we decided it would lend itself as a strong additional point of entry for athletes to make the US Sailing Team.
Not everyone in the pathway will head to Europe, however. Seasoned campaigners will book their tickets to Mallorca, but our leadership team works closely with newer athletes to help decide if they’re ready for the international stage or if their time and money is better spent on more domestic training. We were joined this winter by Paris 2024 bronze medalist in the ILCA 7, Stefano Peschiera from Peru, ILCA 7 World Champion and Olympian Tom Saunders from New Zealand, and 2x ILCA 6 Olympian, Sarah Douglas from Canada. These Olympians offered a fantastic benchmark on the water for our athletes without them having to travel abroad.
There’s value in going overseas and gathering checkpoints for how athletes are stacking up against their international competition, and we’ve also worked to raise the value of what athletes can get right here in the US. But a path to success is going to require careful advising for each athlete’s unique situation and where they are in their development.
Looking ahead at the home LA28 Games on the horizon, I’ll say that having coached the British Paralympic team during London 2012, I’m excited by the opportunity to work with a home team again and for you to experience the same feeling. The energy and pride on the home team is on another level, and the Olympic movement has only multiplied since the Games were last here in 1996.
This is the second time the Games will return to Los Angeles, and some of you will recall the dominance that Team USA sailors displayed in 1984, winning a medal in every class.
The easy question is, “can we do it again?” And I’ll tell you it’s becoming less and less common for a single country to take home the lion’s share of the medals. Paris 2024 featured more nations winning medals per event than any other Olympics this century with 19 nations represented on podiums, according to World Sailing. The talent is spreading far and wide and the dominance doesn’t reside within a handful of countries anymore. A medal in every class is a dream and one that the US has achieved before. Channeling that 1984 magic is an excellent motivator and fuel for events throughout this quad no matter the outcome.
As the host team, we’re granted a spot in every class and are not required to achieve a “country qualification” to unlock a berth before we fill the spot with the selected athlete for Team USA. Team France automatically had a full sailing team for Paris 2024, Japan had a full team for Tokyo, and so on. For you as a supporter and viewer, this means the Team USA selection process just got easier to track. We’ll keep you informed as to how it’ll work as we get closer.
Thank you for your time and care for what’s happening in the Olympic corner of the sport we all love.
Marcus Lynch
High Performance Director