Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

The path to Paralympic silver medals for the US Sonar team reached a turning point at the 2016 Sailing World Cup in Hyeres, France. Going into the final day, Rick Doerr, Brad Kendall and Hugh Freund were leading, which required them to wear yellow jerseys and compete with a large yellow dot on their sail. It was a big deal, and a lengthy wind delay did nothing to calm their nerves. By the end of the day they had dropped two places in the standings. As their coach, I had spent all my time honing their racing skills, but with their world championship just six weeks away, and the Rio Games five months away, it was time to help them get over this mental hurdle.

“How do I coach that?” I asked Charlie McKee, the US Sailing Team’s High Performance Director. McKee connected me with the team’s sports psychologist Jerry May, who has guided Paralympic, Olympic, and professional, athletes across many sports.

“There is a range of optimal arousal to achieve optimal performance,” May told me. “If an athlete is too relaxed it is hard to perform well because they need a high level of mental energy to focus. But, too much turns into agitation, making it impossible to focus on rational decisions.” The goal, he added, is to “find the level of arousal which leads to an optimal level of performance.” The challenge, however, is that the desired level is highly individualized.

When the stakes are high, nervous energy is also high, so the challenge I faced with my Sonar sailors was to figure out how to knock down the stress. I started with what works for me, which is to acknowledge and accept that anxiety is natural and unavoidable. The solution was to shift their thoughts from results to the process of sailing well. If they could compartmentalize the components of sailing, they would avoid getting too amped up when things got intense. When the emphasis is on results and things don’t go as planned (as is inevitable), the wheels fall off.

To refocus the team, we wrote down process-oriented goals that were about enjoying the journey of learning. For example, some of these goals were about starting:

Line sights: Check it at least three times.

Final port tack approach: Jibe onto port into a low-density area to avoid traffic.

Choose where to set up on starboard: Tack either below or beyond a pack, not in it.

Each of these goals addressed something specific that we agreed might help their starts.

This approach took the team’s emphasis off of their finishes, making debriefs more productive. Instead of pinpointing things that went wrong and assigning blame, it was less emotional for us to discuss the specifics components of specific aspects of the race, such as starting.

To help temper emotions and the resultant stress, we worked on instilling a culture of forgiveness. Expecting perfection, then dwelling on what went wrong and who was at fault is counterproductive. Whether they were hard on each other or themselves, it’s far more successful to forgive and simply focus the next move.

Dr. May was emphatic that words should be chosen carefully because they have a direct effect on cardiovascular changes, respiratory changes and muscle tension. “Saying ‘don’t’ usually produces tension and indicates what not to do,” he says, “but does not indicate what we should do.

“Instead, use a more task-oriented word that indicates what to do to increase the probability of doing the task well.” May suggested phrases like: “Hit the start line” or “stay present.”

“Think process and tasks,” he said, and a keyword for resetting when things go wrong. Ours was “Helicopter,” which referred to an idea that if we dropped the team into the middle of a race from a helicopter with no knowledge of what happened in the race so far, they would work hard for a comeback, with no undue emotion and no blame.

Leading up to and during the Games, the team tried their best to train for pressure. We simulated racing under pressure by turning it up, even in short three-boat training partner races. I had no illusions that we would be able to replicate the last race of the Worlds or Paralympics, but at least it kept it in the forefront. Both were intense, and as it turned out, our time was well spent.

Ricky Doerr, Brad Kendall and Hugh Freund hung onto their yellow jersey position to win the Worlds 6 weeks later in Medemblik, Holland by coming back from an 11th at the top mark and keeping their composure to finish third in the final race. Similarly, in the Paralympic Games a few months later, they once again found themselves in a battle –this time to retain their Silver Medal position. Four other teams were close at their heels, but they stepped up to win the final race and secured their Paralympic Medal.

Goals and Goalposts

For Rio, we wrote specific goals to address mechanisms to handle pressure. Here’s what we came up:

1. It does not matter if you are a newbie vying for third in your club spring series for the first time or a seasoned veteran at a World Championship or a Games, if you race enough, sooner or later you will be in position to achieve something meaningful to you.
2. When that happens, embrace the pressure for what it is.
3. Close the deal by using the stress to your advantage.
4. Take a deep breath and release –everyone feels pressure, you just need to handle it better than the next guy.

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The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

Martine Grael, the 25-year-old helm of the Brazilian 49erFX team, and her crew, Kahena Kunze, 25, approach their first Olympic regatta as they always approach regattas: relaxadas. They don’t let the pressure get to them. What they get is gold, and how they earn it is a story for the books.

Let’s go to the final 49erFX race of the Olympic regatta. It’s Brazil’s last chance at a sailing medal at its home Games, and it’s all on ­Grael and Kunze.

Whether it’s Grael’s famous sailing family watching from the sidelines, the intensity of the new women’s skiff class, or the fact that the top three teams are tied on points, the energy around Guanabara Bay is escalating. The entire ­media center is fixated on a TV screen, silent in anticipation, and at the spectator beach in the blinding afternoon sun, the crowd is shimmying to samba music and waving flags. The three-lap medal racecourse is 50 yards from shore.

The start horn sounds, and 10 skiffs accelerate off the line in a wave.

Grael and Kunze and New Zealand’s Alex Maloney and Molly Meech are close to each other near the pin, with the Brazilians slightly ahead. They jockey for position on the first beat, but at the mark, ­Grael and Kunze round first. The New Zealanders split left, pull ahead, and lead into the leeward gate. It’s here that Grael makes her move and goes left while the Kiwis continue to the right, looking up the course.

Watching from Corcovado Mountain, Christ the Redeemer likely gasps at the risky split. Tension mounts as the crowd waits for the Brazilians’ strategy to play out. Grael keeps her cool.

“I could see the middle of the course had bad pressure, so we stayed on our side as long as we could before we had to go back,” she says. “It would have been really bad to cross in that moment.”

In this data-driven regatta, dominated by playbooks — many teams have binders full of course strategies — the Brazilians have their own approach. “I grew up sailing here, but every day I went out on the bay, I pretended I hadn’t sailed there before,” says Grael. “That way, I’m forced to keep my head out of the boat. We always were looking around, always watching and paying attention.”

The gamble pays off, and when the two boats meet again, the Brazilians are 10 seconds ahead.

After rounding, Grael and ­Kunze wait for the Kiwis to make their move. “The left side of the course was definitely better on the last downwind leg,” says Grael, “but we couldn’t afford to split with them. We had to cover. We burned some time waiting for their decision.”

The playbook tells them to jibe and go to the shoreline to stay with the pressure. Instead, Grael and Kunze watch and wait.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Kiwis round and head right, so Grael and Kunze defend from ahead. “They caught us quite quickly once they got a puff,” says Grael. The race becomes a sprint to the finish, and the Brazilians have the upper hand as the leeward boat. “When we went into the final jibe, we had a lot [of wind],” says Grael. “Then it disappeared, and we found ourselves not making the finish line.”

In this moment, from somewhere behind Sugarloaf Mountain, Rio provides for the hometown team. A gust touches down, surging the Brazilians forward. Ouro.

The delta is a heart-stopping two seconds. Brazil has its sailing medal, and the color is right.

Grael and Kunze capsize their boat in celebration, and the ­water fills with family and friends. The beach party is at a full roar as the sailors make their way to shore, where spectators hoist the ­women — boat and all — overhead, ­carrying them through the venue as royalty.

“It was everything and more than I ever dreamed of,” says Grael. “After the medal ceremony, I could see my parents and my uncle, and they were so emotional. It’s a big thing for our family, winning ­another medal, because I wasn’t expected to. It was so cool to have them watch me so closely and be there in that moment of such joy.”

Grael’s father, Torben, has five Olympic sailing medals and now coaches the Brazilian sailing team. Her uncle Lars has two bronze medals in the Tornado, and her brother, Marco, sailed in the 49er in Rio, finishing 11th overall. “They told Kahena and I heaps of stories about the Games,” says Grael. “They told us how people make the mistake of treating the Games differently from other championships, how people can burn out before the Olympics.”

Silver medalist Alex Maloney is the one who introduced the women’s skiff to Grael. “I was sailing a 470 at the time, and while training in New Zealand in early 2012, I got a chance to sail a 49er on my day off,” says Grael. “It went terribly, but it was so fun.” Grael and then-teammate Isabel Swan failed to qualify for London in the 470, so Grael turned to the skiff. She got her hands on an FX rig and borrowed her brother’s 49er. “I went out with Kahena, and the sail was love at first sight,” she says. “We did so much better than we could have ever expected in our first days. It was decided, then and there.” Grael and Kunze burst onto the 49erFX scene, finishing second in their first world championship in 2013, then winning the 2014 Sailing World Cup Santander and the Aquece Rio Test Event in 2015.

Past wins pale in comparison to the magic they experience during the medal race. Their win is the signature on-water moment for Rio 2016. So much media attention had been put on water quality and not on the sport itself. Grael and Kunze turn the spotlight firmly in their direction.

The sole Brazilian sailing medal is matched by the young and hopeful US Sailing Team, which departs Rio de Janeiro chins up but almost empty-handed. If not for the valiant medal-race effort of Finn sailor Caleb Paine, Rio would have been a bust — like 2012 — but the team’s clutch guy comes through.

Paine is hardly consistent in Rio, with some impressive comebacks in preliminary races dotted among deep fleet finishes. “I certainly seem to like to make it harder on myself,” he says halfway through the regatta.

He makes his statement when it counts, though, in the medal race where six of the fleet’s 10 sailors are in contention for silver and bronze (Great Britain’s Giles Scott secures gold with a race to spare). The left side of the course is favorable upwind, but Paine sees pressure on the right, goes with his gut, and finds a shift that ­launches him to the front of the fleet by the first mark — a lead he never relinquishes, crossing the finish line whooping and pumping his fists in bronze-medaled celebration.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

It isn’t all bad for the rest of the American squad. Twelve of the US Sailing Team’s 15 athletes, ­including Paine, are sailing in their first Olympics and advance to six of the 10 medal races. But when it comes to the US Sailing Team’s standouts, where medals could and should be won, there is disappointment.

Annie Haeger and Briana Provancha, the American 470 sure-things, have a shot at silver going into the medal race, with gold already secured by Great Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark. In the prerace meeting, Haeger and Provancha meet with coach Dave Ullman to come up with a plan.

“We decided that toward the beach earlier in the race seemed to have lighter air and sheering puffs off the shore, so we thought anyone who sailed on that side would have trouble crossing,” says Haeger. The left side that later in the day would give the Brazilians their skiff victory is the Americans’ downfall. In the lead on the first and second legs, Haeger and Provancha sail away from the beach, expecting the New Zealanders, who have gone slightly right, to have trouble crossing farther up. What they don’t expect is a 20-degree shift.

“All the girls on the inside got that breeze, and we got pinned on the wrong side,” says Haeger. “We then had to hope to make up that distance we lost on the final ­downwind.” They sail their hearts out on the final leg. It looks for a moment as if they might salvage a bronze, but just before the leeward gate, they foul Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho ­Yoshioka, of Japan, and are forced to drop their spinnaker to ­execute penalty turns. Bye-bye, bronze.

“It’s a difficult pill to swallow,” says Haeger, the wound still fresh in her mind weeks later. “We won as a team and lost as a team, and nothing wavered there. We worked for five years, and it’s crazy that a 20-minute race can dictate whether your campaign was a success or a failure.”

As heart rates return to normal after the intense women’s 470 medal race, the men’s fleet heads out to the same course. The top three teams own the podium, but the medals are still to be determined between the Greek, Croatian and Australian sailors. Out of contention are USA’s Stu McNay and Dave Hughes. Intermittent mistakes have cost them valuable places in the fleet. McNay points to communication breakdowns as their undoing. “There were times [in] this regatta where we supported each other well, and other times where we failed to do that,” says Hughes.

On the Pao racecourse, the race for the men’s 470 medals is on. The three contenders sail one ­another to the back of the fleet, but Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic maintain the upper hand they’ve held all week, finishing more than 30 seconds in front of silver medalists Mat Belcher and Will Ryan, of Australia. The win for Fantela and Marenic is more than just theirs — they win Croatia its first-ever gold medal in sailing. Silver is nice and bronze is too, but after years of campaigning, training and competition, gold is the true goal, and that’s what fellow Croatian Tonci Stipanovic goes for in the Laser medal race. He is focused on the only sailor who can take that gold away from him, Australia’s Tom Burton.

In the prestart, Stipanovic ­attacks Burton, sailing in front of him and backing his sail, trapping Burton behind him. The goal: prevent Burton from starting until at least seven boats get ahead. It’s all about piling on the points. Burton is not so easily controlled. Stipanovic errs, leaving space between his boat and the starting line to ensure he isn’t OCS, but he leaves too much.

The Rio 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition

The Australian sheets in and sails to leeward of the Croatian. In this split-second maneuver, Burton forces Stipanovic to tack away. The Australian bolts up the first beat, ultimately finishing third to Stipanovic’s ninth, seizing the gold. The women’s Laser Radial medal race is a nail-biter as well. The contenders sail in a dense pack that doesn’t shake out until the last run, when Ireland’s Annalise Murphy takes control. Murphy, who had a medal race go wrong in London, looks as if she might steal the gold from Marit Bouwmeester, of the Netherlands. Bouwmeester, at the start of the run, is deep and fighting to podium at all.

As a tall and heavier ­sailor, Murphy’s Achilles’ heel is her downwind boatspeed. In the final 100 yards, five sailors pass her, and Bouwmeester is suddenly two places behind her. Murphy finishes fifth to Bouwmeester’s seventh, earning Ireland a silver medal.

Bouwmeester isn’t sure of her status until her coach gives her the thumbs-up. Dutch fans seem unsure as well, until Bouwmeester raises her hands in victory.

Her gold is the second for the Netherlands, whose Dorian van Rijsselberghe wins his second consecutive gold in the men’s RS:X before the medal race.

On the women’s side, Charline Picon, of France, takes home top honors in the RS:X. For the US Sailing Team, the windsurfing classes are both a struggle, with neither Pedro Pascual nor Marion Lepert qualifying for medal races. Rio is also the Olympic debut of the mixed multihull platform, and the Nacra racing does not disappoint. In a high-speed, physical class that favors the young and athletic, it’s 54-year-old Santiago Lange and his crew, Cecilia Carranza Saroli, of Argentina, who win gold. The light-air regatta plays to the tactical strengths of six-time Olympian Lange, who, despite losing half a lung to cancer in 2015, is able to fight his way up in a regatta of chutes and ladders. His personal saga is the feel-good story of the Games, but Lange prefers to focus on the sailing, calling his health scare “just a stone in the road.” ­Despite two penalties in the ­final race, Lange and Carranza finish a surprising sixth, with enough points to win gold. Rio serves its share of surprises, from underdog medalists to unpredictable weather, but the 49er gold medal is the only sure thing: Nobody was going to beat the Kiwis, and no one came close. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke top the class with two races to spare and a 43-point margin over silver medalists Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, of Australia.

With only one known sailor, Belgium’s Evi van Acker, falling sick, the concern about infection and illness — from water or Zika — in the end does little to mar an other­wise successful regatta. Rio’s Guanabara Bay fulfills its duties as the most challenging sailing venue in recent memory. Playbooks that are helpful one day are irrelevant the next, and with ever-changing conditions, the sailors who take home hardware are the most well-­rounded in their classes.
As quickly as it begins, the Olympic regatta ends in a flurry of container packing and press appearances for the medalists. As the sailors and their support teams board planes bound for faraway places, they each have their sights set on something: the next project, the next regatta or even the next Olympics. Tokyo 2020 is a long four years away, but training is already underway. Ordem e progresso.

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

There was Aussie elation at the Marina da Gloria on day five as the Rio 2016 Paralympic gold medals were wrapped up in the Two Person (SKUD18) and Three Person Keelboat (Sonar) with a day to spare.

Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch in the SKUD18 were yet again on fire as they took two bullets from two races to seal the first ever Paralympic sailing title defense in commanding fashion.

In the Sonar, Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris go in to the final race with a healthy 24-point lead and a guaranteed gold medal that ensures Advance Australia Fair will ring out on Flamengo Beach twice come the Medal Ceremony.

It was looking like the Australian anthem could be played three times as Matt Bugg came ashore with a four point lead in the One Person Keelboat (2.4 Norlin OD) only to be disqualified from the final race, demoting him to third and promoting Great Britain’s Helena Lucas to the top spot.

Two Person Keelboat – SKUD18

From start to finish, Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch have made the head of the fleet their own. From ten races they have eight wins and two second place finishes to sit on 10 points overall with a lead of 21 points over John McRoberts and Jackie Gay (CAN) in second. They wrapped up the gold with two races to spare.

But just how have they done it, for Tesch the inspiration comes from one man, “Australian sailing legend John Bertrand told us, “loose as a goose”, and I think all those conditions getting flung at us out on the Bay, we are just so adaptable and able to handle it. We put in the hard yards before we got here and its paid off.”

Tesch is known around the boat park as being a larger than life character and often refers to sailing as ‘a crazy sport’, so when playfully asked if Tesch is the crazy one, Fitzgibbon agrees with a laugh, “Sometimes it does helps to have a crazy partner. But we can adapt to everything, we can deal with craziness and deal with instability and come out on top.”

His sailing partner isn’t the only person Fitzgibbon acknowledges, “We have the best support crew around with coach Geoff Woolley and Tim Lowe. Tim has been with me since the silver in Beijing [2008] and he puts more in to the SKUD than anyone. If he was paid by the hour we would all be bankrupt.”

With talk moving from their own achievements, it shows the camaraderie in the Aussie camp that celebrations will be put on hold for a little bit, as Tesch explains, “It’s awesome to have the Sonar boys in the gold medal position as well, but we really got to hold it together for Matt Bugg to give him all our energy and support to get him over the line.”

Half interrupting, Fitzgibbon says, “Guess what. We are the first back to back Paralympic gold medal sailors in history.” That fact is met with the usual loud and excited whoop from Tesch.

With the gold medal sewn up, the fight is on for silver and bronze. McRoberts and Gay hold the silver medal position at present after a 2,6 day to finish on 31 points. One point back is Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell who scored a 4,5.

With a 2,5, Polish world champions, Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki, have some work to do and need to put a few boats between themselves and both Canada and Great Britain if they are to make the podium. They currently have 36 points.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

Three Person Keelboat – Sonar

With Fitzgibbon and Tesch securing gold with two races to spare, counterparts Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris were next in line to secure another Australian gold ahead of the final race.

Yet again consistency was the key as a second place gave the Aussies a strong advantage going in to race ten. All they had to do was finish in the top 11 places for the race and the gold was theirs. They won the race just to put the shine on it.

Fresh off the water Harrison said, “It’s just elation. It’s been a long time coming and it feels great to get there. I don’t know yet, still trying to work it out, I can’t describe it. There’s a lot of emotion.”

Harrison couldn’t quite find the words to describe the win, but he found some when it came to why the whole Australian Sailing Team have been doing so well, “I think we have just got the best work ethic, culture, support and everything going on in the background is all about achieving success. That’s what we felt over the years and that’s why we are here today, without a doubt.”

For Harris a particular example of this support came to mind, “Going to Miami [USA] earlier on this year was a really important regatta, getting to sail against the Americans and Canadians there. We couldn’t afford to go but the team got behind us and somehow the money appeared and we got some tickets and accommodation and we were there. Things like that have helped all the way through.”

Being consistent at Rio 2016 was no fluke for the Australian Sonar team. They have been consistent all year, and longer, leading up to the Paralympic Games, but it has always been that little bit out of reach for them, until now, “What’s been frustrating is, in the last three years, we’ve always been on the podium but always a point or two away and it’s been frustrating but you know what?” asks Harris, “This is the one that obliterates all those memories. Being the last Paralympics for sailing, it’s a good one to have won.”

The Australian win was largely helped by their nearest rivals at the start of the day, USA, faltering. Current world champions Alphonsus Doerr, Hugh Freund and Bradley Kendell were within reach of the gold at the beginning of play, but with a disappointing eighth and discarded tenth they fell too far back to challenge for the top step on the podium.

The Americans hold on to second with 43 points, but their North American neighbours and training partner, Canada, are just one point behind on 44. Paul Tingley, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes finished the day with a seventh and a second in the final race of the day.

In fourth place on the leaderboard with 48 points are London 2012 bronze medallists, Norway. Greece and New Zealand are next on 49 points, just one point ahead of Germany on 50.

There is still all to play for in the Sonar for silver and bronze Paralympic medals.

One Person Keelboat – 2.4 Norlin OD

Great Britain’s Helena Lucas leads the 2.4 Norlin OD fleet, but it could have all been so different.

When the boats docked at the Marina da Gloria, Australia’s Matt Bugg was holding a guaranteed Paralympic medal and a four-point advantage at the top. But in a change of fortunes, Bugg finds himself with a lot of work to do just to make sure he doesn’t leave Rio 2016 empty handed after a jury decision went against him and in favour of the protestor, Arturo Montes-Vorcy (ESP).

That decision also moved France’s Damien Seguin from a guaranteed Paralympic medal, to a guaranteed Paralympic silver medal.

“Today was a terrible day of sailing,” Seguin said laughing, “I was really close with the other guys, especially with the American [Dee Smith] who was fighting for the podium today, but finally it was really good for me. Two second places. I am really happy tonight because I’m on the podium.”

Seguin’s second win of the day was later upgraded to first as the Bugg protest result trickled through the fleet.

Champion in Athens 2004, silver in Beijing 2008 and fourth in London 2012. Seguin is happy to be back on the medal trail, “It’s my third medal. It’s just crazy. It hasn’t sunk in yet, tomorrow maybe. I’m still in the race [for gold] and we will see tomorrow.”

That race for gold will be against the reigning champion Helena Lucas. Lucas sits on 25 points and just one point above Seguin on 26. It’ll be a shootout for gold on the final day.

With the protest changing Bugg’s final race bullet to a disqualification, the Aussie fell from top to third where he sits with 35 points. Sailing consistently all week, Bugg finished 14th in Race 9, which he counts, and now finds himself in a fight for bronze with Dee Smith (USA).

With silver and bronze still up for grabs in the Sonar and SKUD18 and a tense race for gold in the 2.4 Norlin OD, the final race day will welcome a full house of spectators lining the sands of Flamengo Bay with racing scheduled to start at 12:00 local time. Sailing.org

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

The Australian Paralympic Sailing Squad had a banner day yesterday and now lead all three of the Paralympic fleets. The most exciting race of the day goes to the 2.4mR class and Australia’s Matt Bugg, who bested friendly rival Helena Lucas (GBR) in a photo finish for the final race of the day.

“The last race was all going quite well,” says Lucas in a World Sailing statement. “I was feeling quite chilled, playing the shifts and then literally, I was keeping an eye on Damien, the French guy, because he was second and I didn’t really think I needed to worry too much about Matt. But literally I looked over and he’s got this massive lift and caught up loads. We went around neck and neck at the top mark and then down the run it was neck and neck. Across the finish I caught a wave and surged forwards and I thought I’d got it so it was that close.” However, it was Bugg who took the win, and it vaulted him ahead of Lucas in the standings for the first time in the regatta, with a one point lead. Damien Seguin (FRA) is in third place behind the rivals, with Dee Smith (USA) in fourth.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

In the SKUD-18, Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS), continue to dominate the class and solidified their lead, winning both races on Thursday. Of eight races completed so far, they have six bullets on their scorecard. Canada’s John McRoberts and Jackie Gay, and Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell sit in second and third, respectively, tied at 23 points. It will take a disaster of epic proportions for the Canadians or Brits to unseat the Aussies.

“It could happen and it does happen,” says Gay to World Sailing. “But, we are just looking to maximize our performance and finish off this regatta as we started.Tomorrows plan will be to stay clean. No one wants letters on the scorecard. People want numbers. So, race clean is our thing. We never do that engaging thing anyway, we just race our race and do what we do best and sail hopefully.”

The Brits will have to better the Canadian’s scores to take silver, but not far behind are Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki (POL). Sitting in fourth on 29 points, the Polish team took a second and a third to edge ever closer to the podium positions.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

The American Sonar squad, Rick Doerr, Brad Kendell and Hugh Freund, defended their second place position on Thursday, and now have a ten point gap behind Australia’s Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris. A US Sailing Team Statement describes the day for the team:

“The Americans engineered a dramatic comeback in the first race, before finishing a close second place in the next race. “On the first race, we just got trapped on the wrong side of the course on the second upwind leg, and lost some boats.” said Kendell. Finding themselves in 13th place out of 14 boats, the 2016 Para Sailing World Champions kept calm and worked their way methodically back up through the fleet. “We did a much better job with the current and breeze on the last upwind leg, and finished 7th,” said Freund. With each point being especially valuable on a crowded leaderboard, the impressive comeback could prove important to Doerr, Kendell and Freund in the final stage of the event

The US team led for most of the second race before narrowly taking second behind the Canadians. “We just couldn’t get right fast enough after the last leeward gate,” said Kendell. “At the start, we got mixed up with another boat, but we were able to tack out right away and get to the right side of the course, where we wanted to go anyway.”‘

Racing continues Friday, September 16 at 1300 local time for the final day of preliminary racing, and medal races will be held on Saturday. For full results, live updates and a live blog, visit sailing.org

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

Day three of the Paralympic regatta couldn’t have been more different than the day before. The Rio sea breeze filled in with a purpose, allowing all three classes to complete three full races. The Sonar class is exactly halfway through their preliminary series, while the SKUD and 2.4mR have completed six out of the ten.

In the Sonar Class, the British team had the most memorable day, with three consecutive bullets that put them back in contention for a medal in fifth place overall.

The British Sailing Team caught up with the trio from Great Britain:

“Three-time World Champions Thomas, John Robertson and Hannah Stodel were in indefatigable form, leading from start to finish in each of the day’s encounters to start breathing down the necks of the boats currently occupying the medal spots.

The Brits had endured a difficult opening two days of their Rio 2016 Paralympic regatta and were placed in 12th overall overnight, after finishing at the back of the fleet in yesterday’s only race.

But today’s clean sweep has now moved them to within just two points of the podium places with five races still to come. Thomas insists they can now only keep doing what they have done today.

He said: “Some of the stuff we talked about last night in our debrief got put to bed and we came out on the water today and implemented everything we wanted to, which is quite satisfying.

“We had talked about belief and following our plans. We had a plan yesterday but didn’t follow it so we talked about having confidence in the plan, believing in ourselves and realizing we’ve got the pedigree. We came out with more of a positive mindset, not that we hadn’t in the previous two days, but just a bit more arousal.

“It’s a long week and now we’re only just over halfway through the regatta. If you look at the scores they’re shifting all over the place so we just need to be there or thereabouts come Saturday and see what happens. If we’re in the medal zone at the end of the week based on the previous two days racing we will be very happy.”’

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

For the American Sonar team of Rick Doerr, Hugh Freund and Brad Kendell, Wednesday was a hopeful recovery, with a 2-3-3 scoreline that vaulted them into second place overall. “”One thing we did well today was keep our cool,” said Doerr in a US Sailing team statement. “We were fouled twice, but we didn’t let it get in the way. We stayed patient, kept our heads out of the boat, and placed ourselves well on the course. We probably weren’t the fastest boat out there today, but we sailed smart.”

Maureen McKinnon and Ryan Porteous had a similarly strong day as their countrymen, and the American SKUD-18 team is now in fifth place in the fleet with four preliminary races to go. The team sailed well despite dealing with some equipment problems. “We broke our boom vang at the beginning if the second race today, which made it hard to sail upwind,” said Porteous in a team statement. “Our main was flogging in the heavy breeze [after the breakdown], and we weren’t fast. We eventually passed a few boats though, and were happy about that.” McKinnon said that after they got the problem fixed, they were pleased to submit their best performance of the regatta to date, a second place in Race 6. “It was nice to get everything working, and sail the way we know we can.”

Also dealing with equipment challenges on Wednesday were the British SKUD team Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell who started the day well, but ran in to trouble with their boat, “Unfortunately for race three today, during start sequence we were fine. Gearing up ready. But our jib sheet fell off or snapped or something and we had to retire. It was unfortunate because we had gained some momentum today.”

The Australians continue to lead the SKUD fleet as they have all week, with am eight point lead over the second-place Brits. With four races left before the medal race, the top handful of teams will need to start putting dents in the Aussie’s near-perfect scorecard to have a shot at taking gold.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

In the 2.4mR, defending Paralympic champion from Great Britain, Helena Lucas, maintained the top position. Despite a good first two days of competition, she was scored a DSQ after fouling Sweden’s Fia Fjelddahl. The top six sailors in the 2.4mR fleet are separated by just six points, so the podium is still wide open. With Lucas’ DSQ, Australia’s Matthew Bugg and Germany’s Hekio Kroger are within striking distance to take the lead on Thursday. “It’s tough competition and this race course [Pao de Acucar] is very difficult to sail,” says Kroger. “The competition is very close in the 2.4. There are a lot of sailors who can sail fast and sometimes they might not have that experience in winning medals, but they are still very hard to beat. Although this is a small fleet, it is still a very hard competition.”

USA’s Dee smith had an up and down day, scoring an eighth and a first in two completed races, climbing back to into fifth place.

The fourth day of racing is scheduled to start at 1300 local time on Thursday. Full results, live tracking and a live blog are available at Sailing.org

The US Sailing Team provided a recap video with interviews of the athletes:

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

In the second day of competition on Guanabara Bay, the athletes were postponed ashore until 1400 local, before the Sonar and SKUD-18 classes were able to complete a race, while the 2.4mR contest was cancelled partway through due to lack of wind.

World Sailing provides insight into the day’s only completed races:

Three Person Keelboat – Sonar

In the only race of the day for the Sonars, the Canadian team, led by Beijing 2008 2.4 gold medallist Paul Tingley, held on for a very tight win after a good start. Only two seconds separated the top three on the Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf Mountain) race area.

Australia’s Colin Harrison, Russell Boaden and Jonathan Harris remain top of the leaderboard on eight points with a fifth placed finish to add to their impressive first day. Day two, however, belonged to Canada’s Tingley, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes who move up to second place on 11 points with the only bullet on offer.

Waiting for the wind is not uncommon in sailing and sailors have their own way of dealing with the wait. For Canadian helm Tingley, he seemed to be enjoying the onshore facilities available to him before the Race Committee sent the fleet afloat, “It was a hot day at 37 degrees with the wind from the north. We were postponed so we were getting some cool A/C in the lounge. Then they decided to send us out as the wind was not going to change from the north, a direction which is very uncommon, so no sea breeze.”

Despite moving out of the comfort of the cool air, the early movement to the water from Tingley and crew paid dividends, “We were first onto the water and started to do our homework which helped us get a jump on the competition. The wind was a little right and then a little left, but we managed to get the first right shift to lead the race. Towards the end of race, it flipped to the right and we had to change our game plan. With a couple of jibes towards the finish we came out on top by a nose.”

Whether or not it’s the race win talking, Tingley seems to be enjoying what the first South American Games has to offer, “We love Rio so far. It’s very variable, light winds and currents, you need to be always changing gears. I really like that ‘thinking’ type of racing. It’s not just a one-way simple track, you must play the shifts and play snakes and ladders.”

Falling behind from the start, Norway’s Aleksander Wang-Hansen, Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen rounded the first mark in seventh overall, but the London 2012 bronze medalists are made of sterner stuff.

They pulled the race back in to their grasp to take the lead and were arguably favorites to push on for the win, but their progress was halted by a gybe which let their rivals back in. They lost out to Canada by just one second and sit sixth overall on 17 points.

Wang-Hansen explained the Norwegians day through his eyes, “It was a shifty, patchy, gusty day. Really tricky. We had a great start, but things didn’t roll our way on the first upwind. But then we caught up a lot on the next two legs to be leading into the finish. We were certain that we were first, but we see now on the results that Canada just beat us.”

Just one second off Norway in the single race of the day were Vasilis Christoforou, Anargyros Notaroglou and Thodoris Alexas (GRE) who not only got third in the race, but mirror that on the leaderboard where they sit on 12 points.

A story possibly developing in the Sonar fleet is the ‘curse’ of the world champions. France (twice), Great Britain and USA are all world champions in the quad, but relatively slow starts on day one, backed up with mid to low placed finishes on day two means the highest positioned world champions are Alphonsus Doerr, Hugh Freund and Bradley Kendell (USA) in seventh overall. But a World Championship title isn’t won by giving up or taking the bad to heart, so watch out in the next few race days for possible leaderboard climbers.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

Two Person Keelboat – SKUD18

London 2012 gold medalists, Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, just seem to be in the mood for another SKUD18 Paralympic gold medal. It was another dominant performance by the pair as they led at every mark to take the bullet on the Escola Naval race course.

The win today, and the great start on day one, has not gone unnoticed by the fleet, especially Canada’s Jackie Gay, “They looked so fast and sleek today. They just had some wheels underneath them. They didn’t really have anyone to fight. They were just out there in front. They came off the line with wheels. Dan [Fitzgibbon] is a really smart sailor and made some good decisions and just extended.”

Being out in front, it looks like the Aussies are the team to beat, but can they be beaten? Gay certainly thinks, knows so, “Nobody is unbeatable. We beat them [in race two],” laughed Gay, “but they are looking very good, there is no question about that.”

Concentrating on her own day with partner John McRoberts, Gay said, “Well it was tricky, obviously light and lots of current. It was heads out the boat and keep an eye of what’s going on and try and sail as fast as you can.

“We had a decent start about half way down the line so we were okay, but then the wind went a little bit to the right so the Polish gained on the inside of us.”

Poland’s Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki continued to push once they passed Gay and McRoberts to finish in second, a position that will help them up the leaderboard as a protest late on day one wiped off a third from their overall score.

With Australia blazing a trail in front, and Poland in second, it was down to the Canadians to hold off the rest of the fleet. It wasn’t easy, but it was fun as Gay explains, “We had a little scrap with the Brits on the way down and that was fun. We won the scrap, coming in third. It was really fun racing.”

Fitzgibbon and Tesch sit in first on four points after three races. McRoberts and Gay are in second with nine points, while the team they did battle with, Great Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell, are third with 11 points.

Racing is scheduled to resume at 1300 local time on September 14. World Sailing provides live tracking and a live blog during racing, as well as complete results updated daily, at sailing.org (http://www.sailing.org/paralympics).

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

For the US Sailing Team, the Paralympics are off to a strong start. In the 2.4mR, Dee Smith is currently in third overall, with a 7 and 1 on his scorecard. “In the first race, I didn’t get off the line very well, and I got ‘pinged’ a couple times, with too many tacks on the first beat,” says Smith in a team statement. “The second race was very clean. I won the start, and it was a two-way battle with Helena [Lucas] from Great Britain for the next couple of legs.” Smith maintained his lead all the way through the start to take a bullet in race two. It’s early days yet, but Smith predicts he will know by midweek if he has a medal chance in this highly competitive class. “I’ve been sailing here for more than 23 years,” he says. “I did a couple of Cape Town to Rio races and a Volvo [stop] here, so I feel comfortable in Rio and I like it.”

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

Defending 2.4mR gold medallist Helena Lucas (GBR) scored 1-2 yesterday, reminding the fleet why she won the medal in 2012. In the day’s opening race Lucas picked the left side of the course from the start, and lead all the way up the first beat and maintained it through the finish, extending a 26 second lead by the second bottom mark. In the final stages of the race, Germany’s Heiko Kroeger chipped away at Lucas’ lead, reducing it to 18 seconds by the finish. Kroeger also placed second in the second race of the day, behind Smith (USA), putting him in second overall.

2008 gold medalist Maureen McKinnon and skipper Ryan Porteus placed Team USA in sixth overall in the SKUD-18 class. “Our speed was good, but we just made a few mistakes and some tactical errors,” says McKinnon. Porteous said it was exciting to experience Paralympic racing for the first time. “I had some jitters, but once you start racing you don’t think about it.”

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

Leading the double-handed class is Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, 2012 gold medalists. With a bullet in race one, the Aussies looked as though they might have a perfect day with a solid start in race two, but they couldn’t get ahead of Canada’s John McRoberts and Jackie Gay, who took the win by less than four seconds in race two. “I don’t think we have pressure on us but if we sail well we know we will be competitive so what happens, happens and we are just happy to be out here,” says Fitzgibbon. “We’re just going to just give it a go and put pressure on and see who can handle it.”

Also in the hunt are Poland’s Monika Gibes and Pitor Cichocki. The Polish team took their first world title in 2016 with a very consistent score line in Medemblik, Netherlands. With two third place finishes they have a strong start, but the Polish team will need to take some bullets to keep up with the Aussies.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

In the three-person Sonar, Rick Doerr, Brad Kendell and Hugh Freund may sit in sixth, but they’re only one point outside of second place. In the second race of the day, the Americans were in place to finish second when they were flagged for a penalty a few lengths from the finish line, and while doing their turns were passed by the Australians, who currently lead the fleet. “Luckily, we had a good lead on the rest of the fleet at that stage, and only lost one boat,” says Freund. “Our speed was great, and we were definitely set up well all day. There was some current, but today’s racing was definitely about pressure. Getting to the breeze was definitely the most important factor.”

Just behind the Aussies, who lead the Sonar class going into the second day of racing, are the New Zealanders. Richard Dodson, Andrew May and Chris Sharp (NZL) won race two yesterday after an 8th place finish in the first race of the day. They’re now tied for second in the fleet with Greece and Germany, all with nine points.

Racing will continue on Tuesday, September 13, at 1300 local time. Full results, live tracking and live blogging are all hosted on the World Sailing website.

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Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

The three Paralympic sailing classes will contest their regatta on the same waters where the Olympics took place in August. They will make use of three of the race courses: the Escola Naval course, the Copacabana course, and the Pao de Acucar course. Flanked by Sugarloaf Mountain to the south of the Marina, the silhouette of the Christ the Redeemer statue atop its mountain to the west, and the skyline of Rio in the background, the venue is as picturesque as these sailors could ask for.

The best way to keep up with the action is through World Sailing’s online tracker and tracker apps, as according to a US Sailing Team statement there will be no live broadcasts of the Paralympic sailing by Olympic Broadcast Services. The racing will be available to watch in 2D and 3D via the live tracking, which will become available when racing begins at 1300 Local time on September 12, on Sailing.org.

Live Tracking via the Sailviewer-3D Tablet App will also be available for devices with 7″ or greater screens. Click here for more information on the iOS App or Android App.

World Sailing will also be maintaining their Live Blog, posting race updates and mark roundings. The live blog will begin when racing starts at Sailing.org.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Sailing Competition

While there is no live coverage planned for sailing, OBS will gather footage for later use by international broadcasters, and it is possible that footage will be used in recap programming by rights-holders. A schedule of recap broadcasts is not available at this time, but we will update this story with any details we receive.

Outside of the US, the following stations are Olympic rights-holders. Check their listings for information on recap programming.

• BCC — United Kingdom
• CBC — Canada
• Sky TV NZ — New Zealand
• ESPN & Fox sports — Brazil, Latin America and Caribbean countries
• Starsports.com and Hotstar.com — India
• Supersport — will broadcast across 40 countries in Africa
• NTVplus.ru — Russia
• Canal Plus — France
• CCTV Sports — China
• Seven Network — Australia
• Sky Italia Sports — Italy
• ARD and ZDF — Germany
• SportFive- across Europe

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Dee Smith is tired. He’s collapsed on a leather couch at New York YC’s 44th Street Clubhouse, pulling uncomfortably at his official team necktie. He’s found a moment to sit down between a fundraiser and a 10-hour meeting marathon with the team management. His flight to Garda, Italy, the location of his next International 2.4mR event, embarks in 20 hours. Smith has been on the go since he joined the U.S. Paralympic sailing program less than two years ago, and while for the most part he has easily beaten other Americans vying for the 2.4mR berth at the Rio Paralympics this summer, it’s the international fleet that’s proving harder to conquer.

“I’ve sailed against, and beat, the best in the world,” says Smith matter-of-factly. “The truth is, I’m really having trouble with the top six guys in this Paralympic class.”

Smith has enjoyed a long and successful sailing career, and his skills and temper are the stuff of legend. Today, however, he’s subdued. Gone are the days of shouting tactics from the stern of a Farr 40 or mini-maxi, or competing in the Volvo Race and ­America’s Cup. Instead he’s now focused on what he can do alone: compete, and hopefully medal, at the 2016 Paralympic Games.

His transition from the apex of professional racing to Paralympic sailing began while Smith was in Valencia, Spain, for the America’s Cup in 2007. He was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer, which spread into his back. Treatment was ­successful, but the cancer left his spine in need of surgical ­repair. He continued to advise sailing teams in less physical roles, including with Emirates Team New Zealand. During the 35th America’s Cup, in San Francisco, he would ride his bike to the top of the headland and observe wind patterns for the support team below. It was in San ­Francisco that Smith was clipped by a car while riding his bike. “It wasn’t a really bad crash, but since my back was already ruined, it just crumbled,” he says. He tried to recover, but doctors ­recommended a spinal fusion.

Unable to turn his neck or back, and with limited use of one leg, Smith saw his sailing career screech to a halt. He took on ­projects here and there, but his body limited his ­options. Smith approached US Sailing Team technical director Grant Spanhake to offer his tactical talent. “He told me instead of coaching, if I really wanted to help the US Sailing Team, I should sail,” says Smith. “I thought, yeah right, I can’t even walk properly. I’d ­never thought of myself as disabled when he first suggested Paralympic sailing.”

At Spanhake’s urging, Smith went to Hyeres, France, to be evaluated. To ensure compliance with Paralympic regulations, a panel of doctors assesses each athlete’s abilities and rates the sailors on a scale of 1 to 7. The ­higher the number, the higher the severity of disability. At evaluation, Smith was rated two levels above the minimum requirement for the 2.4mR class. The report left him conflicted. “On the one hand, the good news was that I could still sail,” he says. “The bad news was that it was the first time that I really had to admit to myself — I mean, I now had paperwork — that I was disabled.”

Smith started competing against the other American Paralympic hopefuls in the 2.4mR. “It wasn’t fun,” he says. “I was trying to help the other guys, to teach them some things they didn’t know since many of them were new to sailing entirely, but in the boat I was out-learning them really fast.”

He sailed 25 domestic races, winning 24. Bored with the class, he wasn’t sure if he’d continue. When he entered the 2015 World Cup in Hyeres and placed 10th, behind the world’s best Paralympic sailors, he had ­renewed motivation. “I realized this would be a sailing challenge,” says Smith. “That’s what I had been looking for. I decided to jump in.”

As he emerged as a front-runner for the U.S. Paralympic team’s selection for the 2.4mR, so did scathing opinions about his perceived lack of disability and qualification. “The ­people claiming that my campaign is a farce are ­uneducated about the system,” says Smith. “They make assumptions based on my appearance. Sure, I have two hands and two legs, but I can’t turn around, my shoulder doesn’t work, and I still fall down a lot.”

While the measurement process for Paralympic qualification was a wake-up call, it also was a vindication — one that Smith has ­fallen back on as his campaign has been questioned in the court of public opinion. Smith points out that he measures two levels of ­disability ­higher than the required minimum for the 2.4mR class. “I didn’t want to be borderline, because I didn’t want to create havoc,” he says. Unfortunately, the vitriol continued anyway. “I used to care about what they were saying about me at the start of this campaign,” he says, shaking his head. “Now I tune it all out.”

Smith says that while he’s faster around the marks because of his fully ­functional appendages, he can’t read the wind well ­because the 2.4mR is so low to the ­water, and he’s unable to turn his neck to see ­other parts of the course. “It’s interesting to see how different limitations play out on the water,” he says. “I get jumped downwind ­because of my situation, but I’m better ­upwind because I can trim more easily.”

During the first event of the US Sailing Team trials, Smith was plagued by equipment failures. Before the start of the Sailing World Cup Miami, he and his team made major a­djustments to his boat, but he says they ran out of time to test the changes. On the third day of racing, his boat dismasted, and the next day, both bilge pumps failed, swamping him. Three points behind in the trials, he spent three months before the final event repairing and improving his 2.4mR, named Kanaloa. It was in Hyeres, France, that he won the Olympic berth and turned his sights to Rio.

The 2016 Games will be the last appearance for sailing as a Paralympic discipline, but Smith isn’t concerned — with that, or with any future plans. “Listen, I’m 63 years old,” he says. “They’re keeping the class in the World Cup, so I might keep sailing. Or maybe I’ll get back into big boats. Maybe I’ll retire.”

In a venue where conditions are much like those in his home waters of San ­Francisco Bay, Smith hopes to do well in Rio, but the naive confidence he had when entering the class has dissipated. When he started, ­everyone told him he would medal, but he now knows it won’t be easy. He will have to fight to win, just as he did with his cancer and crash recovery — and that’s precisely what he plans to do.

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When I first started coaching for the US Sailing disabled program, someone explained to me that ­although training for the Olympics is the hardest thing an athlete will ever do, most Paralympians have already been through something much harder. The Paralympic athletes I know rarely compare their disabilities among one another, so to lump them all into one group is ­hugely misleading, because disabled or otherwise, they have unique stories and hyperspecific training to match. That said, fielding a team of three sailors for the Sonar is not easy. The campaign is long and hard, so the athletes must have chemistry, their total crew weight must be near spot on, and of course, they need the right mix of sailing skills.

As if that’s not enough, Paralympic sailors must first be classified. Classification is taken seriously. International doctors follow guidelines to rate each athlete on a scale of 1 (typically quadriplegic) to 7 (typically missing a leg below the knee). Sonar Team USA 1 has Rick Doerr on helm, Brad Kendell on main trim and tactics, and Hugh Freund on jib trim and bow. Freund is a 7, Kendell is a 4, and Doerr is a 3, adding up to 14, which is the maximum allowed combination for the Paralympic Sonar.

Doerr has a spinal injury he sustained in a car accident. He is paralyzed from the seventh thoracic vertebra down, so he has no core support and cannot move his legs. He has a fiberglass bench spanning the cockpit and a stainless bar from rail to rail so he can slide himself across the bench. He then “bumps” himself up on the rail with his triceps, and without core strength, he holds his body upright with his hand on the bar. His legs are strapped together to prevent his feet from getting ensnared.

Kendell lost both of his legs above the knee in a plane crash when he was 22. He often wears “stubby” legs while racing, but he is agile and strong, so he can get around the boat without further boat adaptations.

Freund lost his leg to cancer in his freshman year at Roger Williams University. He’s considered the equivalent to able-bodied (an 8, if there were such a classification) with his prosthetic leg on, so he can’t wear it while sailing. Instead he uses a cap resembling a giant eraser, just below the knee, onto which he can lean. He is highly mobile even with his eraser.

These three have a different perspective on just about everything. After the 2015 Sailing World Cup Miami, I noted to myself, “Never complain about anything ever again.” Only weeks before the World Cup, Doerr was released from the hospital after 75 days of fighting an infection in his skin that had spread to his pelvis. Infections under prosthetics are common among all three of them, which adds another layer of complexity to the campaign.

Going into the World Cup, for example, one of two qualifying events for the team, Doerr wasn’t himself at all: He was 35 pounds lighter, and intense, prolonged antibiotics had wrecked his body. He was exhausted, sleeping 16 hours a day. In true fashion, however, his teammates stepped up, dealing with everything from rig to de-rig. Doerr was dropped into the boat for his few waking hours each day, and then, after a short visit to the US Sailing Team physical therapist, he went straight to bed to recover.

The team finished with a silver medal, which is an impressive accomplishment, excessive adversity aside. Never a single complaint was uttered — not from Doerr about his exhaustion, nor from Kendell or Freund about the extra responsibilities. The situation was, as they say, the way it was. Situation normal. Stay the course.

Though they train hard, these athletes have an old-school grass-roots ­sailing attitude. Doerr is in his element rolling around the parking lot ­jarring with competitors, often flanked by his wife, Joann. Meanwhile Kendell is doing handstands off the deck and into the water. Freund is always easygoing and quick with a joke.

Kendell: “I was two steps ahead of you on that one.”

Freund: “Can’t be. You have no legs.”

For them, even though racing at the Olympic and Paralympic level is intense, laughter has its place too. If one happens upon a boat park and finds three guys playing croquet with their prosthetic legs, or wheelchair-racing scary-fast down a large hill, it’s them, making their way to Rio, one — ahem — step at a time.

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