The Olympics will be over by the time you read this article, and that will be the big news. I am in Athens right now training for the month of July. I am treating this as my only chance to go to the games and I am really hoping to get a medal out of this effort. This will not be easy and in the Star Class I would say that, given the conditions here, any of the 17 teams can medal.

In looking back over the 18 months of fairly intense preparation, I am reasonably happy with the effort and results. On the sailing side, last summer we competed in the pre-Olympics in Athens and the ISAF Worlds in Cadiz. We got Silver in Athens and 8th at the Worlds. Decent results and a lot of time in the boat. In the fall we won the North American Championship in October then trained in Miami 2 weeks/month through February. I have put more time in the gym than I could afford to if I had a job. I have averaged two hours/day. No one who has a family and a job has that luxury. I have been fortunate to make it happen. In March we sailed the first few races of the Bacardi Cup and took a break for a week. Then we sailed the best regatta of our lives to win the trials.

So the lesson I take from that is the preparation and build up to a