A Q&A with Olympic champ Malcolm Page about his new job at US Sailing
by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 5 Dec 2016
Malcolm Page Induction 2016 - the Sport Australia Hall of Fame The Sport Australia Hall of Fame
Let’s be honest: The past two Olympic quads have seen significant headwinds for the U.S.-flagged Olympic sailing team. First there was the medal-ceremony shutout at the London 2012 Olympics, the first time since the Berlin 1936 Olympics that the Star Spangled Banner was not played at a single Olympic sailing medal ceremony (N.B., Jen French and J.P. Creignou took home a proud silver medal from the London 2012 Paralympics in the two-person SKUD-18). Then there was the single bronze medal that Caleb Paine earned in the Finn class at the Rio 2016 Olympics (N.B., Rick Doerr, Brad Kendell and Hugh Freund captured a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in the three-person Sonar).
While US Sailing has had some significant successes with fundraising, youth development and high-performance coaching in the past four years, there’s no question that the team found itself outgunned in Rio by international sailing powerhouses, such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand, that the USA regularly used to beat in Olympic competitions of yore.
Anytime a once-powerful nation suffers athletic set-backs, it’s common to reach for leadership change, but in the case of the team’s past two Olympic sailing leaders, namely Dean Brenner and Josh Adams, the team had a strong and experienced set of hands on the metaphoric tiller. Still, Brenner planned retirement happened to coincide with the team’s London setbacks, while Adams recently decided to step down from a job that requires constant travel in order to spend more time at home with his family.
To keep their newfound momentum going, US Sailing is now turning to Malcolm Page, one of Australia’s most successful Olympic-class sailors, to lead our Olympic sailing team.
Some backstory. While Team Australia is one of the most decorated Olympic sailing nations in recent history, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics saw the team sail home with pair of medals, one silver (Men’s Tornado), one bronze (Men’s Star). The team wasn’t happy, and Victor Kovalenko, the legendary Ukrainian sailing coach, was brought in as a turn-around man.
Kovalenko performed and Team Australia quickly saw an Olympic turn-around. One of Kovalenko’s prize sailors was Malcolm Page (AUS; 44), a hyper-talented Men’s 470 sailor who won two Olympic Gold medals (2008 and 2012) sailing with two different skippers, as well as seven World Championship titles.
While Kovalenko is famously loyal to Team Australia, word broke last week that Page will be moving to the USA to replace Adams as the American team’s new Chief of Olympic Sailing. I caught up with Page on the phone the next day to learn more about his new role with US Sailing and his thoughts on what an American sailing Olympic turn around will look like.
What are your priorities on day one?
Very good question, I think the initial thing I’ve got to do is actually listen and learn. I certainly have my perceptions from seeing the team from the outside. But [now] I need to listen, learn, and understand, I guess understand the culture, understand what [the team is] doing and then bring my knowledge and beliefs and sort of combine the two, and meld them together, and see how it works.
So if you’ve asked what I may do in a hundred days, I reckon that would be a bit clearer. I feel like we’ve got [to] have a team culture. When I say team culture it’s got to be at a national level and down to an individual. So you can say the [team’s] management, coaching staff, [and] support staff, down to the athlete level and then also in throughout the whole system right from the youth [level] right up to [the team’s future] medal-winning Olympic champions.
From your perspective, what are the biggest issues that are facing the U.S. team in their quest for Olympic medals?
I would say historically, [a big challenge is] to get the foundation out of the way first. To me, obviously, the U.S. sailors [have still won] the most medals in the sailing world. The talent that’s coming through this place is still there, that never stops. The sport is still producing that sort of talent.
The London Games [was the team’s] lowest point. To me, the system wasn’t in place to build those champions. If you really rewind the clock, probably I would say to the mid-nineties when [Olympic] programs started to professionalize or certainly more obviously professionalize, the USA had that [talent] and [they] probably had the technology...and that’s why U.S. dominated. Maybe the college programs was part of that, [but the USA] was dominating the sailing world.
But obviously other nations now have professionalized and they work out better ways to I suppose bridge the gaps from the junior [sailing] right to the top, and [they] put in [athlete] assistance that [has] been refined [and] that are now producing the results.
London was at lowest point things, [and I think things] have already changed. The line I was about to use is “back to greatness.” After the last election that’s a funny line. The base things, the fundamental things, are still there, it’s just how we use it, how do we capture it, how we put it together.
What do you see are the biggest hurdles to solving these issues? Is it just a case of the team needing more money? Or are there aspects to the culture, the coaching, the management scheme that needs to be addressed?
Well I guess half of them I don’t know yet because it’s still very new. But on the holistic view it will be the legacy. ‘How have we always done it?’
To give a direct example, when I first started campaigning, which was for the Sydney games 2000, although outwardly I probably said I want to win a gold medal, I truly didn’t know how to do that [yet]. Sure, I decided to campaign before the [Olympic berth] got allocated, but I was under Victor Kovalenko, [so] I had a pretty good understanding [of the path forward].
But truly, all I could really expect out of that quad was to win that spot within Australia to go to the Games, I wasn’t successful [in winning a medal], I didn’t do that. But every quad I did to my forth quad, my understanding of this did change. And actually by the last quad [London 2012 Olympics] when Victor twisted my arm to do one more and said, “Come on, do one more!” Obviously, I was in a different situation with a new [skipper]. But I remembering saying to Victor, “Okay I’ll do it, but [my] one condition is that the program will run this way.”
And part of that was we need trained partners, I wanted to create a legacy for my country. [You’ve] always [got] to have good training partners, [you’re] always going to have that pressure environment.
So, we got a lot smarter, information [was shared] a lot wider than [before] Sydney, four quads before.
I would also say that I changed along that pathway but that’s experience for you.
What do you see as the biggest strengths that the U.S. team has in terms of organization, and coaching? What do you see are the program’s good bits?
The good bits for me are the talent there, the mass of let’s say the juniors, and the future of the sport in the U.S. is grand. I think the other big bonus here is that there is wealth. To me, money is not the important thing, but it’s certainly an important part of the process. There is the ability to access that here in this country.
But like I said we need a system first, we need the best system, and the process so whatever we do at the moment, we know how to most effectively use it.
Realistically how long do you think it will take to return to days of hearing the Star-Spangled Banner played during sailing’s Olympic medal ceremonies? Are you thinking that this can be turned around in one quad, or are we looking at a longer journey?
I think a realistic goal for Tokyo [would be] two to three medals.
Two to three medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?
I can’t tell you what color they will be. But I think two to three medals [is realistic] and I know you can’t get 2.3, 2.5, somewhere between two the three medals is a realistic goal, and I think by 2024 [the USA] should be the leading sailing nation again.
I like the way you talk! That’s great.
I guess that to me that is more of a thing of my personality. I think that is something we need to set up as well as responsibility. But everyone needs to be part of it. We need to have in this business, like I said before, the best coaching, the best system, the best medical support, we need the best management support, we need the best expertise to make the full circle of the process.
That’s why to me, the first six months of this job is going to be fact finding, finding out where we are. I know what my beliefs are, and checking with the people who have been around here longer and know better then me [is critical]. And then sort of formulating that plan, where we need to refine. I don’t think there will be a lot of changes, [it] might be different focuses here and there. But I think the journey has already [began] four years ago.
Why do you think U.S. Sailing tapped an Australian national for this role rather than hiring an American? Do you think they were looking for your Olympic and communication expertise, or were they looking for more your non-American removed perspective on the situation?
I guess maybe in some ways, it might be a case of a foreigner [coming] in with a difference perspective, [who can] make some of those changes. But yes good question, I don’t have an answer to that. All I know it’s an incredible opportunity and I mean that from both sides.
It’s always [been] my dream post, being an athlete to do this sort of role, [because] I love sport. [For me,] the proudest thing is representing my country within the sport I love and bringing it to the top level. I have gold running through my veins! At the same time I hate loosing.
This sounds a little bit like what Victor Kovalenko did for Team Australia before the Sydney 2000 Olympics, no?
Yeah, you’re right, Victor came to Australia already with the middle name [medal] maker and you know where he is now. For me, there [are] three coaches in the sailing world that are phenomenal, they’ve all got different stories and they stand out. You’ve got David Howlett from [Team GBR] and you’ve got Victor obviously in Australia, and then you’ve got your own Luther Carpenter-somebody who has won five medals in four different classes!
To me, they’ve all got different [stories], but they are incredible coaches. And I say that, I don’t put sailing in front of that, I mean incredible coaches. I don’t think it matters what sport they turn themselves too, they are just good coaches, they understand people, they understand how a team should work and how individuals should work and what they do so well.
Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record?
No just [that I’m] simply excited to get my job [started].
The other thing I would like to say is the reception I’ve felt over the last 24 hours since it’s been announced, and also the interview process has been really cool, really exceptional, it only motivates me more.
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