A Q&A with US Sailing’s Malcolm Page about the Sailing World Cup Miami

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 20 Feb 2017 The Sailing World Cup Miami (January 22-29)-widely regarded as the first significant regatta of the 2020 Olympic cycle-recently concluded in Miami, Florida, giving veteran teams a chance to shake off the dust that had (metaphorically) settled on their sails since last August’s Rio 2016 Olympics, while also giving first-timers an eye-opening taste of what an Olympic campaign entails. For U.S. Olympic hopefuls, this rare, domestic-waters regatta also offers a geographically convenient way to speed-check against their international rivals and better understand the racecourse-reality of this high-minded-but-intensely-competitive dream.

While American sailors have suffered disappointing results at recent Olympic Games, the great news is that the team’s Olympic Development Program is now starting to bear some promising early-season fruit, both in terms of scoreboard metrics and in terms of gathering depth of talent in several classes. Even better, this is a trend that is poised to continue for the foreseeable future, thanks to some smart leadership decisions, some generous donations, and a long-game view of success and what it will realistically take to hear the Star Spangled Banner played first at an Olympic-sailing medal ceremony.

Like many countries, North American sailors used the recent Sailing World Cup Miami to experiment with new combinations of partners and classes, and, overall, American sailors proved quick. In the Men’s 470 class, Rio veterans Stuart McNay and David Hughes captured a proud gold medal, while Luke Muller finished in fourth place in the Finn class, Riley Gibbs and Louisa Chafee finished in sixth place in the Nacra 17 class, and Charlie Buckingham and Erika Reineke finished in seventh place in the Laser and Laser Radial classes (respectively). Additionally, Wiley Rogers and Jack Parkin finished in sixth place in the Men’s 470 class, Atlantic and Nora-Lucia Brugman finished in eighth place in the Women’s 470 class, and David Liebenberg and Ian MacDiarmid landed in tenth place in the 49er class.

I caught up with Malcolm Page (AUS), a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the Men’s 470 class (2008 and 2012) and US Sailing’s recently inaugurated chief of Olympic sailing, to get his pulse on the team’s performance at this high-level event and discuss some recent coaching changes within the organization’s Olympic-sailing program.

Any sailors in particular, or any classes of boats that really stood out in your mind?
Well, Wiley [Rogers] and Jack [Parkin] in the Men’s 470, Luke [Muller] in the Finn and Riley [Gibbs and Louisa Chafee] in the Nacra 17.

Were there any performance surprises, anybody who had a really good regatta that you weren’t expecting, or vice versa?
No, I think all results were pretty much on par, except those young guys-they, I think, exceeded all expectations. Indeed probably much better even than they expected.

Are these young sailors all part of US Sailing’s youth-development program?
I suppose most of them would’ve gone through it at some stage. The program [has] only been going [on for] a couple of years, but they certainly would’ve had some time through it.

How much importance are you placing on a first-place finish, like what Stu and Dave had in the Men’s 470, this far out from Tokyo?
Not much… Getting things right in the sense of [the right] cultural attitude is far more important at this time in the cycle than results, because those two principles will take you a lot further than some good results.

This was the real first event of the 2020 cycle and it’s a long road to go. So results don’t mean so much [compared to] what they’ll mean in two years’ time.

How do you feel the team’s culture change is coming along?
I would say really well. If there’s anything else I’m really happy with from Miami, [it] was certainly that single thing.

The modern game of Olympic sailing needs to shift to marry or meet what other top notions are doing at the moment, and I think the new generation [has] already got that [message], and the seasoned players are realizing that they’re [going to] have [to embrace] that shift as well.

So I was really excited about that.

It seemed as though some sailors were trying out different skipper/crew combinations. Is that still normal at this stage of the quad, or would you prefer to see teams fully committed right now?
I think that’s very normal and I’m sure there’ll be plenty more of that to come. The Olympic sailing is certainly high pressure and the amount of time and what they’ve got to do, and I know certainly what I’ll be expecting them to do, it’s really [going to] put a lot of pressure on relationships.

That’s a part [of the team-forming process]-sometimes I think you do need those challenges before you can actually work out what the best way is, and then step it up to another level. So those [teams] that don’t have those challenges, I don’t think they can be a great team.

How big of a deal is it in your mind for US Sailing and for the U.S. as a whole to have someone like Anna Tunnicliffe potentially coming back to sailing?
I think it’s really important to have as [many] people campaigning as possible, and of course–and that’s coming into the whole cultural thing–I think it’s really important that a lot of them are working together while they’re campaigning. I think that’s very important in this modern day game. And someone like Anna Tunnicliffe would be super special. Obviously she’s an incredible person, [an] incredible athlete, with an incredible attitude, so to have somebody who is so seasoned, so successful, to be part of the team would be incredible. And she is the current and the most recent [sailing] gold medalist that USA’s had. So if she does choose to come back it would be a great boost to the team.

Can you tell me about Charlie McKee’s recent decision to resign as the team’s high-performance director? Was this always part of the plan, or did this come out of Miami? And also, how will this staffing change affect the team moving forward?
I guess there was certainly a question that Charlie even proposed to me early on, when I first started. The role that I have, opposed to what Josh [Adams, the team’s Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing] was doing, is much more focused on performance [sailing], opposed to Josh who had all the fundraising. I will be of course connected into the fundraising, but there will be a whole group that will be focusing on fundraising to financially support the team. So yes, [Charlie’s job with the team] was always a question mark, and it certainly became quite evident through the month of January and of course across the Sailing World Cup Miami.

How do you think Charlie’s decision will affect the team?
[There] will be always a transition period and we’re really fortunate that Charlie is around for this whole this month to help us transition, so there will always be a little bit of a transition period, but I must admit I’ve actually reached out to I think now nearly every single athlete. Some of them we haven’t hooked up on the phone yet, but we’ve certainly talked via email and SMS to connect. So I feel like I’ve got a great rapport with the athletes and I must admit, I think Charlie and my philosophy is very similar in the way we operate.

So I don’t think there’s [going to] be any huge difference from an athlete perspective and actually, if anything, I think as this team [continues] maturing, hopefully we’re about to support [the athletes] better, considering that’s my plan.

Anything else about the Sailing World Cup Miami that you’d like to add, for the record?
From an event perspective, I think Regatta Park was a huge success. I know from my old [job as head of marketing and media at World Sailing] that [the event organizers] were always trying to move towards one central place [that offers] more interaction into the public, and I think Regatta Park was a huge success in that sense. [It was the] first time [that] I [can] remember from the Miami event that all athletes [were] in one area, and I think that was a huge plus. So I’m sure as the Regatta Park [concept] matures over the next few years, it’ll only get better.