Australia's Strongest Olympic team

by Bob Ross on 10 Aug 2004 The sailing team in Athens is undoubtedly the strongest and best prepared Australia has sent to the Olympics. In nine of the 11 classes, the Australians have raced at the Olympics before; one of them, Colin Beashel, five times in the Star class.

They have forged a close cameraderie between the old hands and the newcomers, drawing strength from each other through many hours of regattas and practice, that has carried on from Sydney 2000.

Winning at sailing in the Olympics at a first attempt is a rarity. It’s a special event, within a super-charged atmosphere generated by the world’s best in a host of sports, under intense media and spectator scrutiny.

With the fleets distilled to the very best sailors from the Olympics’ national nomination process, everyone is going to be fast, everyone is going to be super fit. Knowing how to race well in all conditions and being accustomed to winning major events will sort the medallists from the lesser currency.

Athens is going to be a tricky place to sail, with high land and the city’s buildings affecting the Meltemi breeze off the land which, according to the Australians who have raced there, is much like Sydney’s winter westerly. The sea breeze is also unstable, with direction shifts of up to 30 degrees even in moderate to fresh conditions.

That will make the pre-event predictions just as tricky. Yachting Australia’s head coach Victor Kovalenko believes the team has the potential to win medals in nine of the 11 classes. It will be down to who races best, who makes fewest mistakes, day by day.

Yachting Australia recruited Kovalenko in 1997 as 470 coach. He became known as ‘the medal maker’ after coaching the Australian 470 men (Tom King and Mark Turnbull) and 470 women (Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell) to the gold medals in Sydney and the Ukrainian team of Braslavets and Matvienko to gold in the 470 men at Savannah, in 1996.

Kovalenko, made national head coach in November 2000, has had overall direction of the team’s preparation for Athens 2004. He has directed a preparation program that has taken the Australian sailors through a sequence of top international regattas, interspersed with well-planned training periods.


The coaches, too have a great depth of Olympic experience. Mike Fletcher, the Tornado coach, is at his eighth Olympics. Erik Stibbe, who moved to Australia from the Netherlands in 1997, has worked with Australia’s top Laser and Europe sailors, including the 2000 Olympics.

Dayne Sharp, working with the Star class team and Brendan Todd, with the men’s and women’s Mistral windsurfer athletes, were both coaches to the Australian team at Sydney 2000.

Newcomers since 2000 are: David Adams, the NSW Institute of Sport head coach, who is working with the Yngling women’s keelboat team; Arthur Brett, twice world Contender champion, who has been working with the Laser and Finn singlehanders and Ian ('Bunny') Warren, recruited by Yachting Australia from Great Britain’s Royal Yachting Association, to coach the 49ers.

All the coaches have great respect from their sailors and are embraced within the cameraderie of a truly great Australian team.

Support staff

The team in its preparation has had help from support staff specialists, some of whom are in Athens.

Brett Young, the outstanding Adelaide sailor in everything from dinghies to Grant Wharington’s Wild Thing maxis, is in charge of boat maintenance. Young is the proprietor of Young Marine Services and Foils which has developed centreboards and rudders which are particularly dominant in the 470 and 420 classes. Over the last four years, he has been developing specialised foils with Kovalenko.

He was boat technician to the Australian team at the Athens Pre-Olympic regatta in 2003 and the 2003 ISAF world championships.

Also in Athens is psychologist Vicki De Prazer, who greatly helped Jamie Dunross and his Sonar crew refocus and regroup to win selection for the Paralympic Games in Athens after the tragic death of their skipper Noel Robins in a pedestrian accident last year. Physiotherapist Donna White is also with the team.

Others who have helped prepare the team are sports dietician Louise Bell, sports physiotherapist Phil Bedlington and strength and conditioning consultant Andrew Verdon.

Manager of the Australian team in Athens is Graeme Roberts-Thomson, who is a member of Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. His involvement with the Olympics dates back to the Atlanta Games when he was director of Queensland’s Olympic 2000 task force, charged with the role of securing international teams for pre-Games training.

His love of sailing has been fuelled over the years through the sailing activities of his three children (now adults).

Roberts-Thomson is a business consultant specialising in corporate-government facilitation and crisis management.