Rio 2016 - The fall and rapid rise of Annalise Murphy to win Silver

by Sail-World.com on 18 Aug 2016 So far there are two significant stories at the 2016 Olympics.

The first is Santiago Lange, who won two Olympic medals in the Tornado class, before switching to the Nacra 17, in 2014, almost by accident. His two sons will context the Medal race in the 49er, today, Thursday. He suffered a bout with cancer - and the removal of half a lung, last click here to read more.

On Tuesday he won the Gold medal in the Nacra 17 and became the oldest Gold Medalist at the 2016 Olympics.

The other is Annalise Murphy, who would not have been selected by countries with a 'medal capable' policy. She won the first four races of the Weymouth Olympics in the Laser Radial, and looked invincible, but she stumbled in the last half of the regatta and finished a very creditable fourth.

From there it was all downhill - her placings in the 2014-16 World Championships were 20th, 55th and 39th. The latter being sailed in April, in Mexico.

On Tuesday, she won the Silver Medal in the Womens Laser Radial.

How did she achieve this tremendous turnaround in just four months.

This story published yesterday by 42ie.com reveals how.

There's an oft-repeated line in Irish politics: ‘It’s the little things that trip you up.’

The small details can make or break a campaign, a politician, a government.

“You cross the big hurdles, and when you get to the small ones, you get tripped,” former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds famously said as he resigned in 1994.

Skip forward 12 years and New Zealand sailor Sara Winther came 11th in the Laser Radial world championships. The 34-year-old had already qualified her country for the Olympic Games and just needed to be formally selected. This automatically happens if the athlete places 10th or above by the nation’s rules.

Despite an appeal, 11th wasn’t going to cut it for the men-in-suit brigades and New Zealand opted to leave Winther at home and send nobody to the race.

One place on a leaderboard. A little thing.

It may have been a small detail to the Kiwis, something to be dismissed, a name they wouldn’t worry about again. But what if they should have thought twice? The little thing that tripped up New Zealand was about to kickstart a journey to an Olympic medal for another small island nation.

Sometimes, in sport as in politics, the power of the small things work in your favour.

Let down by the system, Winther wasn’t fully at peace with her country’s decision, knowing she could offer something special to the 2016 Games. A fierce competitor, she has the enviable combination of killer instinct, high intelligence and a rare ability to coach.

Four years and a day ago, Annalise Murphy stood heartbroken on the seafront of Weymouth, crying while talking to the national broadcaster. She had finished fourth in the Olympic Games, a torture only few people in this world know.

On that afternoon, she vowed to come back and win that medal. At 22 years of age, it was the most plausible scenario.
But in the next four years, her confidence waned. People told her she wasn’t a light-wind sailor and Rio was a light-wind course. She lost form in big races. She lost funding. Redemption at the 2016 Games seemed to be drifting further and further away.

“We were all so terrified of London. It was such a risk,” Cathy McAleavey, Annalise’s mother and an Olympian herself (she competed in Seoul 1988), said as she waited to watch her daughter take to the podium today.