We invest so much in our Olympic sailors: Money. Hope, Understanding. Emotional Support. Trying to comprehend and meet the Olympians' needs. Trying to know when to come forward. Trying to know when to hold back. Being aware when publicity is needed. Being very aware when it isn't. And finally, we invest expectations.
NEVER QUITE ENOUGH MONEY?
Inevitably, we feel there has never been quite enough money. For sure, Irish sailing Olympians may sometimes seem to be generously funded by comparison with other Olympic sports in this country. But as a vehicle sport, sailing starts from an expensive base. And as soon as our would-be Olympians start to move into and up the international scale, they find that several other nations are operating in a different league in terms of resources of all kinds, ranging from more money to larger support teams, while being boosted by a much stronger history of international medal winning.
Forty-four years ago, Silver Medal celebrations were more modest – this gathering at Malahide Yacht Club in 1980 for Silver Medallists Jamie Wilkinson and David Wilkins was how it was done, with (left to right) Bill Cuffe-Smith (Commodore, Howth YC), FD crewman Jamie Wilkinson of HYC, Peter Killen (Commodore, Malahide YC), helmsman David Wilkins of MYC, and Paddy Kirwan (President, Irish Yachting Association).
As to the other forms of involvement with the Olympians, there's an element of making it up as we go along. We have to. The situation is becoming ever more publicity and communications-swamped with every four-year staging of the Five Ring Circus.
CLOSE SCRUTINY OF 2024 OLYMPICS
With France regarded as a close and very important neighbour, and one with extra and stellar sporting glamour too, Paris 2024 with the sailing at Marseille has been an Olympiad more closely scrutinized, analysed and – when appropriate – more joyously celebrated than ever before.
In 1980, Ireland's total haul was just three Olympic medals, with two of them for sailing. All the medallists could be comfortably fitted into the Lord Mayor's parlour, and Dublin's Lord Mayor of 1980, Fergus O'Brien (left), hosts (left to right) boxer Hugh Russell (Bronze Medal), sailors David Wilkins & Jamie Wilkinson (Silver Medallists), and Lord "Call Me Michael" Killanin, President of the International Olympic Committee
For Irish supporters quietly, oh so very quietly allowing their hopes to become expectations, the suppressed yet reasonable Irish thoughts of a joyous celebration of a medal in the 49er Skiff were cruelly dashed in the Medal Race. As it was too, in the less hopeful circumstances of the solo Men's Dinghy, racing the ILCA. Our Olympic sailing team head home trophy-less from Marseille, hopes of prizes defeated by the ultra-stress of the Medals Race.
THE DREADED MEDALS RACE INTRODUCED IN 2008
A final double-scoring non-discardable Medals Race was introduced to the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and immediately became ever more significant in developing spectator interest through its harsh simplification of the regatta's racing conclusion.
So much so, in fact, that in 2012 with the sailing for the London Olympics staged in the Portland-Weymouth area, for the Medal Races the sailing area was brought in from the sensible open sea setting that had been used for the other races, and that last do or die multi-duel was staged close under a steep headland.
Before 2012's frustration, Annalise Murphy's exceptional sailing strength had been demonstrated in strong winds in open water Photo: Thom Touw
GRANDSTAND FLUKINESS
This may have provided a natural grandstand for 15,000 or so spectators. But it made the winds so flukey that Annalise Murphy, poised until then for a good medal win, was spooked back into the barren placing of fourth.
But she learned much from her Portland-Weymouth experience, and in the more level sailing with all races in Rio in 2016 including the Medals event, she was going well. Having gone into the Medals Race reasonably well in line for a Bronze, she finished with a Silver – for her, the Medals Race jinx was well and truly overcome.
This was good, very good – Annalise Murphy coming to the finish to take Silver Medal for Ireland at the Rio Olympics 2016
With that excellent sailing success, the Olympic drums were beating big time over Dublin Bay and Dun Laoghaire. Where David Wilkins and Jamie Wilkinson and their Silver in 1980 were welcomed home from the Moscow/Tallinn Games with receptions which were little better than photo opportunities in their respective clubs of Malahide and Howth, in August 2016 Annalise Murphy came back to a reception in the National Yacht Club which could have effortlessly morphed into a full-powered rock concert, and sailing became the Golden Girl of the Irish Olympic movement.
A rare sight – fireworks over Dun Laoghaire Harbour to celebrate the 2016 Silver Medal. Photo: W M Nixon
MIXED BLESSING
It was a mixed blessing. So great were the potential rewards of winning an Olympic Medal that performance pathways towards them became ever more clearly defined, and to outsiders it seemed that promising sailing youngsters were being strait-jacketed into harsh training routines, and an ultimately rather lonely way of life, at much too young an age.
Some of the most promising young people have evidently thought so too, as they quietly stepped off this narrow road, and re-joined "civilian life" with as little fuss and as much privacy as possible, a situation which the sailing media has scrupulously respected.
But it is a matter which should surely be discussed in light of the fallout of the sailing medal drought in Paris/Marseille 2024. Perhaps a wider view should be taken of the fact that our Performance Sailing Squad seem to lead an existence almost entirely outside the richly varied sailing scene in Ireland.
Many Olympic-aimed sailors, particular in New Zealand and Australia, seem to be able to occasionally transfer in a relatively seamless style into other boat types and different forms of sailing. But in the Irish context, when some well-meaning sailors try to bring an Olympian into their less demanding area of the sport, it often seems to have the feeling of a contrived exercise about it.
A sense of foreboding? Afloat's report of the 1980 Silver Medal managed to be celebratory while carrying a hint of foreboding. And yes, in order to tack a Flying Dutchman, the crew did have to leap off the trapeze and get that ludicrous genoa across, clear ahead of the mast and other clutter, and fully trimmed for the new tack.
Admittedly we have seen Annalise Murphy and Finn Lynch obviously enjoying themselves with a win in a Dublin Bay water Wag, and across Dublin Bay in Howth, the Olympians are expected to put in at least one token appearance in the symbolic Howth 17s.
IS OLYMPICS-WORSHIP TOO BIG IN IRISH SAILING?
But generally, the feeling of Olympians being of another world is pervasive in Ireland. And maybe it's not that Irish Olympic Sailing is not big enough in our national sailing consciousness. Maybe, on the contrary, it is trying to be far too big and much too simplified in its Medal Race conclusion, and needs to be put back into proportion.
Against that, maybe Olympic Sailors really do have to be a breed apart. Top Irish sailors tend to be larger than life. They don't have to be so in their personality, but they do have to be larger than life in the way they sail and organize their boats. The great Denis Doyle of Cork was a classic example of this breadth of achievement. Yet he was about as different as possible from the top examples of Olympian stardom.
A new stage for Irish sailing. Olympic coach Rory Fitzpatrick speaking at the National YC from in a setting that explains itself in 2016. Photo: W M Nixon
For ultimately, successful Irish Olympic sailors seem to have an almost monastic devotion to their calling. Talent is needed, but there is much more to it than that. Thus where we've had prodigiously talented sailing stars like Harold Cudmore and Gordon Maguire, they did not seem to fit at all comfortably into the Olympic structures.
SERIOUS, DEDICATED, FOCUSED AND UNSHOWY
But David Wilkins is a serious, dedicated, focused and unshowy person. You get the feeling he was a member of an elite section of some semi-secret International Civil Service whose task was to ensure the Olympic flame is kept alight day and night without fuss, and who knows how to behave himself when introduced to some self-important dignitary.
Despite the apparently isolated nature of the Olympic path he followed with Jamie Wilkinson towards the Silver Medal in 1980, you had the feeling this was Corporate Man Gone Afloat. And indeed, after he'd hung up his medals, he worked ashore in the corporate world until his retirement.
Sailing in Ireland had never seen anything like this – people came from all over the country to celebrate Annalise Murphy's Silver Medal at the National Yacht Club in the magic summer of 2016. Photo: W M Nixon
A SIMPLER TIME?
He'd won his Silver Medal in what now seems to have been a simpler time, despite the global situation being similarly tense. And his medal was greatly gilded by being the first for Irish sailing.
But now we're in an era where we're slaves to our expectations, and the sailors in particular have been under unreasonable pressure. So perhaps the first stage of recovery is to stop messing about and admit that the results at Marseille were disappointing without qualifications, and take it from there.
OFFICIAL VIEW
Irish Sailing's Performance Director (see full report on Afloat.ie here) takes an ultimately hopeful view which will be the basis of reinforcing the grounds for longterm optimism among the Olympics-supporting sector – the majority – in the Irish saiojng community
"All the athletes have demonstrated their world class capabilities this week at the Olympic Games, most notably by Rob and Sean who held second overall for their entire fleet series" commented James O'Callaghan, Irish Sailing's Performance Director. "However, all medals are won and lost on fine margins and unfortunately it just wasn't to be."
THE WORD FROM SAM
Maybe we could learn something from a noted Irishman who became an even more noted Parisian. After all, he came from a Dublin family where many sailed, even if he preferred hill walking and cricket. Be that as it may, Sam Beckett concluded The Unnamable with: "I can't go on. I'll go on". And then in Worstword Ho he sent us on our way with the exhortation "Try again. Fail again. Fail better".
That might get us through the weekend. Then doubtless by the time of the Olympic Team Parade in Dublin on Monday afternoon, the campaign towards the Sailing Olympics 2028 will already be under way.
The Sam Beckett Bridge in Dublin. Is it time to bring the Nobel Laureate on board as a thought guide for Ireland's Olympic sailing?
