Article by Alistair Murray AM, Australian Sailing President

Because I enjoy the Olympics so much and have sponsored our sailing teams for so long, I started writing a tribute to our team about four Olympics ago. I have done it each Olympics since and am doing it again, with the added insight of being the Australian Sailing President and having been there in Marseille for the event.

My wife Tracey and I, along with AS Director Rich Wormald and wife Carrie, were thrilled to be in Paris to see Jessica Fox win her first gold medal. Wow, that was something special!

We attended a cocktail party at the Australian Ambassador’s digs in Paris with spectacular views of the Eiffel Tower and got to rub shoulders with some Olympic legends such as Dawn Fraser and Kieren Perkins. Chef de Mission Anna Meares, made a magnificent speech about being an Olympian, talking about how much courage it takes to represent your country under so much pressure and what a magnificent achievement it is to simply qualify for the Olympics and to compete for Australia.

Australia had the third largest team in Paris, behind the USA and host nation France. We had a team of 460 athletes in total of which around 100 brought home medals from the 53 events we were on the podium for. So 360 athletes came home without a medal, but they are all winners for their courage, their efforts and for reaching a level in sport that most of us can only dream of.

And so, to Marseille we went, to support our sailing team, one of our youngest ever, with an average age of 24.

The conditions looked tough from the outset. It was stinking hot and humid and the breeze, even when it was in, was puffy and shifty. It then pretty well shut down in the second half of the regatta, making it very tough in particular on those who sailed in the second week.

We sweated all week in Le Comptoir Marsellaise, the restaurant chosen as our Friends and Family venue, but what a week we had! We had a continual stream of parents, friends, brothers, sisters, cousins, partners, Patrons, sailing dignitary from other sailing nations, World Sailing hierarchy and on and on. We had Senator the Honourable Richard Colbeck and his wife Gaylene with us every single day, enjoying the camaraderie and the action, which was brought to us live on the big screen, with live tracker on the other screen, by Zoe Thomson’s brother Alex, and Beau Outteridge. We all had a ball together and were really one big, happy family.

We cheered them all on and were proud of all of them. Zoe Thomson (ILCA6), Jim Colley and Shaun Connor (49er), and Brin Liddell and Rhiannan Brown, (Nacra), you showed flashes of form and you should hold your heads high. You are all young and have bright futures in sailing, perhaps at the next Olympics. Ditto to Nia Jerwood and Conor Nicholas (470), Olivia Price and Evie Hazeldine (49erFX) and Breiana Whitehead (Women’s Kite). You had that extra achievement of making top 10/medal races. Well done!

So that leaves us with our blazing stars! Grae Morris, (Men’s Windsurfer), you thrilled us with your performance to be top scorer and qualify for the final. You were brilliant, not showing a hint of nerves, but being outgunned on the day by Tom Reuvery of Israel. Well done on silver… precious metal! And well done to your legend of a coach, Arthur Brett. It was so great to celebrate with you both back at the F&F venue afterwards, and Grae you are so natural and such a charmer. I laughed so hard when a table of English girls asked you what you had won your medal for and as quick as a flash all 110kg of you responded “gymnastics”. I really enjoyed your parents Brett and Evelyn and your sister, Scarlette… like family.

Likewise for our superstar Matt Wearn. We were with your parents Brad & Karen all week and they couldn’t have been happier or prouder. You were supreme, so cool, calm and collected under pressure. Perhaps cooler than that great character of a coach of yours, Rafa Trujillo, and cooler than all of your supporters, who were all on tenterhooks as the medal race was postponed again and again. The suspense was killing us but you relieved us all by bringing home the bacon against Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus, the same sailor who Slingers beat in the medal race in London 2012, and with the final margin of 16 the same too! Thanks for being the consummate champion, Matt and huge congratulations for representing sailing so proudly as Australia’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony.

Arthur and Grae

Karen, Matt and Brad

So, it was gold and silver medals for Australia and we were ranked equal 4th sailing nation. While our young team made us proud, we are not content with these results but there are plenty of green shoots and potential for Los Angeles and Brisbane.

Of course it was a team effort and it was headed up by CEO Ben Houston and High Performance Director Iain Brambell, solidly backed up by Technical Director, Michael (Blackers) Blackburn. Well done to our coaches Victor, Rafa, Shane, Arthur, Carolijn, Darren (Bundy), Andrea & Josh. Thanks so much to the rest of our team for your support in various capacities… Ashley, Mark, Sam, Amanda, Kai, Michael, Marcelin, Lucy, Dan, Samantha, Lisa, Natalie, Charlotte, Beau and Alex. And support staff on the ground in Sydney, Kathy, Chelsie, Tom, Steph, Alistair and Tatiana. It takes a village to raise and maintain a sailing team!

Thanks too to the regular visitors to F&F, who help so enormously at higher levels such as World Sailing and the AOC, Ian Chesterman, Matt Carroll, Sarah Kenny & Matt Allen, and David Gotze representing our dear Patrons who we depend on so much.

All in all it was an experience of a lifetime, and we’ll aim to be there in LA. Finally, a personal highlight was when F&F waiter Guillame discovered after a few days that Tracey was my wife … “You’ve won the gold medal” he said!

www.sailing.org.au