From Olympic flag to Olympic Gold and maybe another
by Rob Kothe, Sail-World.com on 28 Apr 2016
Mat Belcher and Will Ryan Bernardi Bibiloni
The Sydney Olympics was a Sailing double 470 Gold event for Australia.
Having won the 420 World Championship in 2000, the feeder class to the 470, while still at school in Australia young Matt Belcher was given the honour of carrying the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
470 Coach Victor Kovalenko invited him and his brother Daniel onto the Australian 470 sailing squad where they became the training partners for Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page.
As a helmsman, Belcher rose to the #1 ISAF ranking in 2007 but did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics as Wilmot and Page won the 470 World Championship and then went on to take Gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Matt takes up the story…
‘We started 470 straight after the Sydney Olympics, it was a great time to actually get involved in the class with the success that Australia had.
‘I just won the 420 World's, so it was a natural progression coming straight into 470. I remember my first time in a 470 was actually with Mark Turnbull, he had just won Olympic gold and Victor had organized for him, less than two weeks after, to work with us. We had a wee camp with him and we ended up buying the Olympic boat and it really set me on a nice pathway to here we are today.
Matt and his elder brother Dan had some good results, they were world ranked number one in 2007 leading into Qingdao but the World Champions Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page went on to win Beijing 470 Gold Medal for Australia.
Matt drove a Television media boat on the Qingdao Olympic course so he was at least close to the action and it was an important time as he explains.
‘What a unique opportunity. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my sailing career at that point, we had the disappointment of losing the trials over that period and not going when we were both one and two in the world, that was pretty hard.
‘I’d spent a lot of time, eight years of my life, invested to get to the games and I saw my brother Dan, he'd moved on, he'd done his Master's and a good job, and I never really saw myself as a professional sailor. I always wanted to go into business.
‘After missing selection, it was hard being out of the environment, I was out of 470 sailing for almost a year.
‘From that point I did a lot of Moth sailing and just really tried to enjoy just being on the water, a different type of racing I guess from being a big circuit.
‘To be there in that Olympic environment, in Qingdao even though it was with the media which was a great experience in itself, really brought home OK, this is what the Games are about.
‘It brought back a lot of drive that I needed to get back in the boat and trust myself again and give it another four years. It was a good idea.
‘As Nathan Wilmot had already said he would retire after Beijing and Mal wasn't sure, I guess waiting to see the results. It seems it was always one of Victor's plans to set Mal and I together and even actually during our trials he swapped us around a little bit.
‘Then Malcolm and I went on to win Gold in London 2012. We had an amazing partnership together, and it was a really great time. I really enjoyed that campaign and I'm really enjoying this campaign with Will (Ryan) as well.
‘Will is very motivated and he's an amazing athlete. He's really brought a lot to the team. We're learning constantly on the water the things that we're looking at, and I guess the attention to some of the areas, it's really amazing and I'm really enjoying this period. It's exciting, it's a great level of sailing.
‘99 days to Rio and we will be busy there. The unique thing about 470s is we have a lot of regattas, so pretty much most of our days are co-ordinated with the rest of the fleet. I think we have a series of five or six (coaches) regattas in Rio between now and the Games that we and all our competitors will do.’
And all is right with the 470 World having not been off the podium in any regatta in this quad, Belcher and Ryan lead the Hyeres fleet after day two. Just sailing as they mean to go on.
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