Anna’s older brother Daniel Willcox on the wire with Paul Snow-Hansen at the 2018 Miami World Cup where they finished 5th. Before Rio the pair were runners-up to 2016 gold medallists Šime Fantela and Igor Marenić at that year’s world championship and then 10th at the Games themselves. Very tough boots to fill competing in a class that your dad had once made his own for getting on half a decade. After winning the Genoa World Cup series the pair are currently no4 in the world rankings and pre-selected for Tokyo 2021
some of the best of the British Olympic talent for Team GBR, and in more recent years coaching Burling and Tuke, Willcox and his wife Ulrika have seen their own children perform at the highest level. Their daughter Anna has represented New Zealand in freestyle skiing at the Winter Games, while their son Daniel has already competed with helmsman Paul Snow- Hansen at the Rio Games and will return for Tokyo 2021. ‘They say that the apple doesn’t fall far
from the tree. Of course we’ve had our screw-ups as parents, but I think one of the really good things that I think Ulrika and I have done well is we’ve never pushed them into sport or anything else. We’ve only encouraged our kids to think big and dream big and follow their passion. We’ve just said, “Look, if this is what you love to do, then we’ll support you all the way.”’ While any parent would take pride in
seeing both of their kids going to the Olympic Games, and for all the Olympic medals he has helped win as a coach, it still pains Willcox that he and Barnes never got their opportunity to compete for the gold medal in Long Beach in 1984. Having dominated the previous three years of competition, they weren’t ready for the curveball thrown at them by their national sailing federation. Despite all their success the New Zealand selection would come down to a winner-takes-all, Kiwi-only regatta in a tiny domestic fleet. ‘You look back on your life and you
realise those things where you missed out. And that was a missed opportunity with- out doubt. I visit Dave quite a bit these days, he’s crippled with MS and unable to
50 SEAHORSE
get out of bed and, after all the America’s Cup sailing he did and all the other things he achieved in his career, on the walls around him in his room he’s got pictures of us racing the 470 together. That would be the one thing for sure that he would look back on his life as seeing as a missed opportunity and it was just a crying shame that we never got to the Olympics. ‘I remember that moment when it was
confirmed that we hadn’t won the trials held here in New Zealand. The outpouring of grief from around the world was insane. People were sending telexes to us and to the federation, that “this is wrong – these guys have got to be at the Olympics!” It was just one of those situations where I think everybody got ahead of themselves and no one within the organisation at the time – and us included really – had a decent enough plan for those trials. ‘There were three events held very close
together, the Nationals in New Zealand, the Pre-Worlds and then the World Cham- pionships, and we won all three of those hands down against an international fleet including all the Kiwis. And it should have been job done. Then to be told that we were to have a trials with 10 or 12 boats after- wards, that it was going to be winner-takes- all… and really the wheels just started falling off our campaign very quickly.’ Haunted by that missed opportunity,
Willcox has devoted his career as a coach to leaving no stone unturned, helping sailors identify their weaknesses and turn- ing them into strengths. Burling and Tuke were already operating at world-class level when they approached Willcox about coaching them, just a few months after
they had won the silver medal at London 2012. ‘They won that medal by having the best boathandling in the 49er fleet,’ says Willcox, ‘but they felt they needed to work on their decision-making skills.’ In summer 2013 the Kiwis would go on
to win the first of their six (and counting) 49er world titles in Marseille. A more impressive reflection of Willcox’s input to the campaign perhaps was that – going into the final race – the only team who could beat Burling and Tuke for the gold medal were their training partners and fellow Kiwis competing at their first ever 49er Worlds. At the ages of 20 and 21 respec- tively, Marcus Hansen and Josh Porebski went on to take silver in their first interna- tional season, not so very different from the young Barnes and Willcox back in 1981. For more than eight years Willcox has
worked closely with Burling and Tuke and is building up to one of the busiest periods in their career: first the defence of the Cup in Auckland in early 2021 and just four months later the defence of their Olympic title in Tokyo. While Burling and Tuke are two of the most complete sailors in the world, and perhaps the best partnership the sailing world has ever seen, they continue to rely on Willcox as their sounding board. Aside from his legacy on the water
Willcox is revisiting the Road to Gold that he wrote more than 30 years ago for the Japanese market, this time in digital for- mat as an online course. It’s a 12-chapter programme that lays out the pathway to success for any sailor aspiring to the top of the sport. Due for launch in November 2020, you can find out more at
www.roadtogold.net.
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JESUS RENEDO
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