Aus 5’s Final Year on Path to Paris
Nia Jerwood
2024 has been a huge year for our Aus 5 Olympic Campaign! Back in 2021 Conor and I sat down for coffee to discuss our sailing goals and availability over the following three years. We left that meeting with a shared plan to represent Australia together in Paris 2024. Living out that dream with Conor this year has been an amazing experience and I am so grateful to the people who helped us along the way.
At the end of 2023 Conor and I reached out to the WA sailing community for help as we could clearly see what we needed to do to achieve Olympic selection, but weren’t in a financial situation that we could do it alone. The Ron Tough Yachting Foundation, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and its members, the Flying Fifteen community and other sailing families as well as our friends just blew us away with their support both financially and through following our campaign. The Ron Tough Foundation was particularly generous.
We used the bulk of the funds to attend numerous 470 training camps in Lanzarote in January. The international 470s, in particular the European teams, use the location for its variety of conditions and warmer weather during the winter months. We competed in two regattas and plenty of coaches practice racing whilst there, allowing us to work on our starting, fleet tactics and race strategy which is not possible in the small fleet in Australia. I also had a great time off water sharing accommodation with some IQ foilers; some of who I met for the first time and continued to hang out with at events during the rest of the year.
After Lanzarote we headed to Barcelona to pick up the boat we would use for the remainder of the year and the Olympic Games. We spent a few days in Barcelona working on the boat before taking the ferry across to Palma. In Palma we had two regattas; the World Championships followed by the Princess Sofia regatta, both of which were Olympic Qualification events. There we faced a unique challenge at the world championships with it being in late Feb early March as it was really cold, and we had to wear much more sailing gear than we were use to. Keeping our hands warm and brains working on water was a new challenge but one we handled well.
Palma marked the end of three months sailing off Spanish Islands, it was time to hit the road again and head to France for the Hyeres Olympic Week. Before going to Hyeres, I flew to Wales for the week to see my extended family and be with them when we got some important news. It wasn’t assured whether we had qualified for the Olympics or not at that point so receiving that phone call from the Australian Sailing Team when I was with family was really special. I was actually in my cousin’s Crossfit gym mid workout!
The following Olympic media release and public announcement was two days before the start of the Hyeres regatta. This was a great opportunity for us to work on managing outside distraction and additional excitement around a regatta. We sailed well in Hyeres finishing top 10 but unfortunately there was too much wind for a medal race. After Hyeres we drove to Cannes, France for the European Championship. Canne was famous for its fashion brand shops, fancy cars, film festival and super yachts but unfortunately not for its wind. We managed to find an Airbnb that only just didn’t cost us a kidney each and settled in for an interesting week. The European championships was one of the lightest regattas I have ever sailed in and Conor and I learnt some really tough lessons there, which certainly paid off later in the year. After the Euros we headed home to Perth for a two-week pit stop before sending it straight back to France to start our three month training lead in to the Olympic Games.
The three months we spent in Marseille comprised of numerous coaches’ regattas, hours of speed testing, trialling different sail designs, data collection on condition patterns, finalising fitness preparation, optimising our nutrition and plenty of discussions with both our sports psychologist and coach. We were also very fortunate to have WA sailors Axel and Jaime join us for some additional down wind technique development and sail testing, it was so good to have them there.
For me, the Olympic Games the second time around was a very special experience. I was more comfortable going into it this time as I had a greater understanding of all the additional protocols, media requirements, I had experience with what my own reactions are under Olympic pressure and as a team I felt more prepared. Conor did a great job managing the environment as well and I think this had a big impact on our ability to race as well as we did. The Games still brings up a mix of emotions and thoughts for me. I am immensely proud of the effort and preparation we put into our campaign. I am also proud of the improvements we made in light wind conditions from the European Championships to the Games. I still feel like there were crucial moments during the regatta that we missed opportunities to turn our great race positions into solid results on the score card. I know this feeling well, it is one that has pushed me to continue in the past and has got me this far in the sport so far. One of the most special things about this Olympic Games was sharing the experience with my family who were on the ground ready to give me a much-needed hug on the beach after the medal race.
I am so grateful to our friends, the sailors and families in WA as well as the Ron Tough Yachting Foundation who generously supported us financially, allowing us to complete our campaign plan to 100% and relieve a fair amount of the stress we had about how we could make it happen.