Rod Davis
Can’t please everyone
The Olympians for the Rio Games have been selected. These sailors will represent their country, having the privilege of realising that Olympic dream that not many people on this planet will come close to experiencing. A few, as in very few, will win medals. Any colour is a good colour when it comes to Olympic medals. Still it starts with being selected, going to and competing in the Olympics. Something only 0.000001% of the world population will ever do. Perhaps that is why the selection of the Olympic team can be, and often is, so controversial. The sailors who put the time, effort and money into their dream certainly aren’t happy if it ends before the Games. Their personal Olympic torch has been extinguished. Flame out, gone cold, it’s over. Over the years more and more non- selected sailors are appealing the decision, going to arbitration, tribunals, even the courts. One last-ditch effort to revive the dream. So how do you get selected to go to the Olympics in sailing? Well, each country has to qualify in each of the classes, except the host country who gets an automatic entry in all classes. This process is all done six months before the Games. It does not matter who qual- ifies the country (as in the name of the sailor) – the country owns the spot, and there is only one spot per class. Some classes have 46 spots (46 countries), others have far fewer. No matter, one crew per country in each class (this, in part, is to prevent team racing). The national yachting body, be it Yachting New Zealand, the Royal Yachting Association, Australian Yachting or US Sailing, has more than a bit on in writing selection criteria that are well defined, but also loose enough to deal fairly with the unexpected. Sailors want a clear definition of what they need to do to win their trials and go to the Olympics. Like a maths equation – you do this and you get that answer. But selectors don’t want to be painted into a corner by the law of unexpected consequences. They want the latitude to deal with crazy things that spring up and can bite you… the unexpected that sometimes does happen.
What do I mean by the unexpected? Well, Swimming Australia knows all about the unexpected. Iain Thorpe, ‘Thorpedo’, past Olympic champion, world record holder and sure bet, if there ever was such a thing, to repeat winning the gold medal in the 400m Freestyle at the Athens Olympics, was disqualified in his trials. In swimming a false start is a DSQ. No second chance. The Thorpedo false-started in the Australian trials. You have to qualify at the trials to go the Olympics. DSQ is not qualifying. So, by the letter of the selection policy, no Thorpe at the 2004 Olympics. As you can imagine there was an uproar, more a shit fight, before Swimming Australia sorted out the issue. Always messy to have to
22 SEAHORSE
change the rules after the fact. Craig Stevens, who did win the Aus- tralian 400m Freestyle Olympic trials, was none too pleased about being forced to relinquish his own Olympic dream to the Thorpedo. As Olympic Director for Yachting New Zealand for the 2008 Olympics, I was hell bent on learning from the Thorpedo experience. For the first time Kiwi Olympic sailors would be selected by a selection panel over several regattas. The job of the panel was to pick the sailors with the best chance of a medal. Or, in some cases not select anyone at all for a class... even if New Zealand had qualified a slot. Hey, it worked for the New York Yacht Club for 135 years – the selection committee, complete with red pants and straw hats, selected the Defender of the America’s Cup, not solely based on results, but on what team they felt would best defend the Cup. In the four years prior to each of the Olympic Games, getting and staying on the New Zealand national sailing team, thus receiving funding for campaigning for the Olympics, was much more defined: top-10 finish in the worlds, or top-eight in the European championship, or equivalent. So getting on the national team and/or selection for the Olympic team are not inevitably interconnected. As you can see, it’s a bit of a slippery slope. The simple, yet wrong answer is to nominate some regattas, and the winner goes to the Games. What if the nominated regatta is sailed in extreme conditions and bears little resemblance to a ‘fair’ result? Or the sailor who has dominated the first two regattas has an accident, or falls ill, and can’t sail the third?
Here is the basic outline we used for selection for the New Zealand Olympic sailors in 2008. Oh, I should remind you, the funding we received (thus the mission statement) was to winOlympic medals. It was all about winning, not just participating, hence we received the money in the first place! 1 The potential to win an Olympic medal, shown through selected regattas (usually three) and performances on the world stage. 2 Or to be ‘blooded’ (gain experience) for future Olympics.
Three reasons it was so tough to get on the New Zealand team: l Very limited funding. Simply put, there was not enough money to go around. So we needed focus in all aspects, including spending money. Giving 100 people $50 has less impact on creating high performance than giving one person $5,000. Yachting is expensive – add as many zeros as you like. l More sailors does not translate to more coaching staff allowed at the Olympic venue. So adding extra sailors dilutes the support each sailor gets. This compromises your brightest stars who could win the medals. l When you send sailors for the sake of filling open slots you
MAX RANCHI
AUSTIN FARRAR/PPL
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