venue. When I look back it isn’t that I didn’t enjoy it or wasn’t happy with the result, but I am not happy with my performance at the time, and this has been the biggest motivation and drive for me to campaign towards Tokyo.
The opportunity to compete again with Mat and Victor, two of the most remarkable individuals in the sailing world, is phenomenal. Plus to have their trust and confidence to pursue this goal with me is hugely reassuring. For me the biggest thing now is to make sure the performance I put forwards towards Tokyo is the best I can do. That is the difference between Rio and Tokyo for me: engaging in the small but key components to improve the chances of success. And clearly your homework for your second Olympics is going to be much improved from your first. SH: Ben Ainslie won his first Olympic medal in Atlanta in 1996, a silver, and he was very disappointed with not winning gold – but that is Ben. What was it like to come away with a silver at your first Games? WR:In the moment I was not upset, that wouldn’t be the right word. And the word disappointment feels harsh – but that is ultimately what it was, and perhaps I felt like I had let some people down. But it is such a complicated game, this sport. It is not like you can pinpoint an exact moment when I didn’t sheet on and that is why we lost… it is a journey itself heading into it and during the Olympics it seems to go on for ever. We used every day through the whole schedule from day two of the Games, right to the day before the closing ceremony; and when you look at some of the swimmers, they finished two days into the event and they can enjoy the festival! I thought – hang on, I didn’t see anything else of the Games... absolutely nothing.
Certainly some things unravelled and we didn’t get the roll of the dice. We are taught resilience in adversity and to always be positive and take the initiative, but a couple of small things combined and that may have put us in a position on the last day where it was difficult to win going into the medal race, and that is what you
want to be doing: winning the regatta with a medal race to spare. SH: Does the phrase bittersweet fit? WR:It’s weird. When I get my Olympic medal out of the sock drawer I think it is pretty cool. I sometimes don’t relate to it being mine, but the greatest asset of that medal is to show and share it with family and friends who helped on the way. I haven’t taken the time to go back and review a lot of the races – even though I don’t remember some of them.
When you say bittersweet I have put those memories towards experience – I hope this is not going to be my life’s peak, and I see bigger and better experiences ahead both in and outside sailing. I take the lessons and have a really cool opportunity going forwards and every day I remind myself of that. It is tough to keep doing what you are doing. It is vital to enjoy the little things along the way. You see it when some of the lower-level teams win a medal at a World Cup – they are so excited sharing that with friends and family. I look at them and I get it: just how cool it is that they enjoy that moment more than some top-level teams. SH: After Rio was there a physical crash for you as many athletes experience – with flu or colds hitting you hard? WR: Remarkably it almost went the opposite way… To get home to Australia with great weather and able to eat more, all of a sudden I realised I had this huge untapped potential that I hadn’t used at the Games. I was too skinny at the Games so wasn’t at my best. So that was one big lesson to take into Tokyo, not to get too skinny and push myself to a place where I didn’t need to be. This time I won’t be too skinny or too fat or obese – I will get the balance right. SH: The phrase obese doesn’t enter the lexicon when I look at you, Will… After Rio you told me you wanted to try some different classes. How much of that can you do alongside the 470 programme? WR: Anyone who has met our coach Victor Kovalenko knows just how committed and passionate he is about sailing and about his team-mates, and this work ethic has made him the leader in his
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