Olympic Sailing: Paralympic results- disappointing?

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Paralympic results- disappointing?

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: General
Forum Name: Olympic Sailing
Forum Discription: The top end racing in our sport
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4649
Printed Date: 26 Jun 25 at 1:34pm
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Topic: Paralympic results- disappointing?

Posted By: nathan
Subject: Paralympic results- disappointing?
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 4:43pm

Paralympic results:

2.4m GBR 7th/ 16

Sonar GBR 6th/ 12

SKUD GBR 5th/ 11

Were these results expected or should they have been better? In my opinion they should have been better. Results were better before the Games. The 2.4m is regularly a high performer. The Sonar have had lots of good results, and the SKUDs won gold at the Paralympics.

They recieve similar funding to our able-bodied sailors, whereas other nationas do not recieve the same as able-bodied programmes. Indeed, some of the competition are not even full time sailors. Further, compared to able bodied events the fleet sizes are small with a maximum of 16, with only 11 in the SKUD.

The SKUD team are new, however the Sonar team went to Athens 2004, as I believe did Lucas in the 2.4.

What went wrong? Why did they underperform- sharing the infastructure as part of Team GBR would insure met info etc was up to speed...

Replies:

Posted By: radixon
Date Posted: 14 Sep 08 at 7:01pm

I think the conditions in China were totally different with the waves/lack of wind etc.

I think they all did well to compete and get where they were positioned. Its difficult to always be at the top and I am sure they were under pressure anyway, even more so by the other Olympic Sailors gaining gold.

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Posted By: winging it
Date Posted: 15 Sep 08 at 12:13pm

I'm pretty sure they will be asking themselves the same questions - I am sure they will feel they underperformed, especially in the light of the Olympic results. Hopefully there will be a thorough debriefing and lessons learned, but I also hope that they do not get disheartened; the end of an Olympic campaign must leave enough of an empty feeling once the euphoria has died down, never mind how it must feel if you have not lived up to expectations.

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the same, but different...