You are here: home > diary > olympics 2004

Diary Olympics 2004

I am now back from Athens and obviously very happy to have a silver medal around my neck. When we finished the final race at the Olympics we felt slightly disappointed we had not managed to win the gold medal, but it didn't take long for us to realize that silver was a great result and we had beaten a lot of very good sailors.

The conditions were on the light side for Athens with the one strong wind day we had being abandoned for reasons only the race committee will know. The decision not to race on this 'meltemi' wind day had later consequences as well when we raced the following day in under 5 knots which was meant to be our day off.
Paul Forester and Kevin Burnham, the gold medallists sailed exceptionally well, we knew they would be hard to beat in light winds, and they delivered that week. Every time we were at the front of the fleet they were there as well, a lot of the big name sailors seemed to struggle with the pressure and with three races left it started to look obvious that it was going to be between us and the Americans for gold. Going into the last race we had to beat them by two places whilst they just had to make sure we were at the back it didn't matter if they were there to, so long as we were not in the top fifteen. We knew that whichever boat won the pre-start would probably win the battle and the gold. Unfortunately we made a mistake in our positioning which handed Paul and Kevin the advantage, from there they kept a tight cover on us and we finished last and second to last, giving them the gold.

Winning a medal at the Olympics is fulfilling a dream for us. Coming 4th in Sydney gave us an unwelcome insight into what it is like to just miss a podium position, and perhaps made it feel all the more sweet making it this time. It also added an extra pressure going into this Olympics with everyone around us muttering 'what if they come 4th again?' Fortunately we managed to turn Sydney into a positive experience, at the time 4th was a personal best and that gave us confidence knowing we had performed when the stakes were highest.

Once again the British sailing team put in a fantastic performance winning 2 gold's, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals. It was great to be part of such a successful team and I think it helps we all get on well together and support one another as best we can, the Olympics is very insular for the athletes and at times the pressure is almost unbearable, this is when the team spirit becomes essential.

For Nick and I this caps an amazing year, we have managed to win a medal at every event we entered including bronze at the world championships and gold at the Europeans and are now ranked no1 in the world. The Silver at the Olympics is obviously the highest profile and the ultimate goal but the consistency we have found in our performance that is so hard to achieve in Sailing is something we are especially proud of. Over the past year we have built up a mentality to never be content, to always look for another way to improve, but on the flight home, sat amongst the other medallists I did think we did it! Where we go from here we will have to wait and see, the World championships next year are in San Francisco and having got a silver and a bronze at past world championships it is tempting to go and try to win but for now I think we can chill out a bit!

We would like to give a massive thank you to all of our sponsors who have supported us through the ups and downs, and to everyone who sent us emails and letters wishing us the best. It is very much a team effort and the network of people who helped us get here is huge, to vast to name but anyone who helped in any small way, it would have made a big difference to us so thank you.