Paul Cayard
Life
My mother passed on 28 January. I was fortu- nate to be in the country and spent her last week with her, sleeping on the couch next to her in the living room. Mother-son relationships are special. I am an only child. She is the first of my nuclear family to pass so it was a new experience for me. It wasn’t a tragedy; she was 91 and
suffered from Alzheimer’s. But it did bring reality to the cliché ‘We are not going to live for ever’. She was 27 years old when she had me so I figure I may have 27 cards left to play, if all goes well! That’s less than a third of my life. I better play them well! Time is the most valuable commodity, not money. On 24 February, four weeks to the day after my mother passed,
I woke up and resigned from my job with US Sailing. A voice was repeating to me, ‘Don’t waste another day with people you can’t work with.’ I have never quit anything, not a job, not a race, not a game of
tic-tac-toe. This board of US Sailing managed to create a first for me. In a vacuum they reorganised the Olympic department without consulting anyone in the department nor any of the supporters. In their plan I would be removed from the operations of the team, and a search would be conducted for a new COO who would report to the CEO of the association. Then they had the gall to ask me to stay and raise the money for them! So, two years into a seven-year project, they forced an implosion. Resigning was a very tough call for me. I was passionate about
my mission. I was part of the very successful 1984 USA Olympic Sailing Team. I marched into the LA Colosseum with Evander Holy- field, Michael Jordan, Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Mary Lou Retton,
36 SEAHORSE
and the sailors; the Buchans, McKee, Benjamin, Haines, Davis and 490 other great American athletes. Then at 45 years of age I placed fifth in Athens, and once again felt the power of the Olympic expe- rience and being an American. Sailing gave me all that and much more. I wanted to pay it forward.
I know our talented athletes can once again get to the top of the Olympic podium. They need and deserve our support, our vision, our leadership, our mentorship and our passion. We were making progress up that very steep, and long, hill to
the podium. We were becoming a ‘Team’, we were working in squads, our youth pipeline was flourishing, we created a six-regatta domestic racing platform (US Opens) where 200 competitors from 30 nations came to race on our water in Florida. Finally, and impor- tantly, we raised $18m to support this vision including a $7.5m kickstart to an Olympic endowment which would provide perpetual funding to the team. Then someone thought they knew better. And some others, who
knew less, supported them. A few retained their wits and objected. But it was too late. An
avalanche of ignorance and arrogance had begun to slide down the hill in Bristol, RI and into the mud of the Narragansett Bay. I have to admit that I was blindsided. I trusted and expected that if we did our jobs, executed what we committed to, paid our bills with no support from US Sailing and got results, we would be respected and left alone to pursue our mission. Shame on me. My heart will always be with our talented US athletes. It was my
honour and privilege to share part of their journey with them. I admire their dedication and commitment. I hope they get the support they deserve to compete with the
VAN DER BORCH
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