Debriefing the Rio 2016 Olympics with Team USA’s Helena Scutt

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 8 Sep 2016 The 49erFX was introduced to Olympic sailing circles when it replaced the Women’s Match Racing event following the London 2012 Olympics, offering female sailors a significantly higher-level performance platform than the old Elliot 6Ms. Much like its big-brother, the Men’s 49er, the 49erFX requires lightning-fast skiff-sailing skills and the ability to compute constantly evolving fleet-sailing tactics while hanging on a wire at full hiking extension.

Not surprisingly, the class drew many experienced skiff and high-performance sailors for the Rio 2016 Olympics, including Team USA’s Paris Henken (20) and Helena Scutt (24), who were both sailing 29ers (but with different partners) on the US Sailing Youth Development team prior to earning their 2016 Olympic berths.

While both Henken and Scutt were Olympic first-timers in Rio, this certainly didn’t stop them from putting on a respectable show during fleet racing, including earning a bullet in Race Five. This earned the Americans a coveted spot in the Medal Race, where they had an opportunity to see-firsthand-how Olympic medals are (metaphorically) minted.

Ultimately, Henken and Scutt finished their Olympic regatta in 10th place, which met the pair’s pre-Rio goals and afforded the sailors an invaluable experience competing against some of the world’s best female skiff sailors. Sail-World caught up with Scutt to hear about her Olympic experience, and to learn more about her post-Rio plans.

What did it feel like to earn an Olympic bullet in race 5? Can you tell me about that experience?
Yes, it was awesome. Pretty indescribable feeling to win a race at the Olympics, because we only have 12 or 13 races and it’s one thing to get Top Five, but to actually get the bullet and be first was a really cool feeling!

Just before that start a British boat-we had a start before that and they hit us [and] we capsized and we were pretty fired up about that. We are really lucky because the [previous] race was recalled, we got the boat back up [and sailing] and I think that [situation] set something off and we just wanted to really make something happen. We had a really good feel for the wind shifts, we had a good start and [we] nailed all the shifts and [we] just had a blast [sailing] so it was really an amazing feeling.

How did the Olympics stack up to any preconceived notions that you may have had about what the regatta would be like?
Well there is a lot of things that you know are coming and you can’t really prepare for, such as living in the Olympic village, the opening ceremony and then all the media that are at the boat park, and everyone else for that matter, and also being on the team with 550 other [athletes] as part of Team USA, so there are a lot of things that really [are] special and unique to the Olympics and all of those things were incredible.

The energy at the opening ceremony and knowing that the whole world is watching, just trying to wrap your head around the fact that there is no other world stage for sport [that’s] bigger or more universally recognized [than the Olympics]. So that’s pretty special, but then as far as performing goes we were trying to remember that as far as [the Games] being a regatta, it’s just like any other regatta in [that] the wind and the water don’t care whether it’s the Olympics [laughs].

The racing was better than I thought [it would be as] we had amazing conditions and…we hardly had any postponed races for the weather, and we had some great winds. As far as sailing conditions were concerned, I thought it was one of the best regattas that I have ever sailed and it was also really special having my family and friends come down [to Rio].

[It was a] little overwhelming because we are not used to [so many family and friends being there when Paris and I] travel around the world. It’s usually just us, but that was the really cool part of it as well- being able to share the experience with them.

So when you add up all those factors, it was a lot to take in, but everything was really great. I think getting around [Rio] just took a lot of time because of the distance between sailing to the village and stuff like that, but that’s part of being in a huge sporting event in a big a city.

There was a lot of talk about water quality going into this Olympic regatta-did that end up being an issue at all for you and Paris?
Not at all. I never [even] thought about it at all when we were racing or launching or anything like that. The water was the best that I’d ever seen it [in Rio’s Guanabara Bay] and it did not affect the racing at all.

How did the level of competition differ from the 2016 49erFX Worlds?
So it’s interesting because a normal event such as the World [Championships] we would race in separate fleets like yellow and blue for qualifying for the first three days, and then the rest of the event will be [sailed] in [the] gold fleet, which is 25 boats. So as far as fleet size, the Olympics are 20 boats so it felt like much more like a gold-fleet event than say qualifying, when you are with teams of all different levels.

So it’s a higher level it felt like a gold fleet but at the same time [there were] a few less boats and also not all of the countries had everyone there. So I would say it was a really high level of competition at both events. I don’t want to say [that] the Olympics was less competitive [than the Worlds] but in a sense it is harder to get a Top 10 at a Worlds than at the Olympics because of there being less boats from the same country, but [also] the fact of getting to the Olympics was such a huge process [involving] the Olympics trials and everything like that so that’s why the Olympics is so well regarded as [being] competitive just to be there.

What were the biggest lessons that you learned about Olympic sailing at the Rio Games?
[Laughs] A lot of things, one thing [was] that I was really surprised with how I reacted [and] also how Paris reacted to the pressure of the Games, I mean all eyes are on you.

Again it’s something that we worked [on ahead of time], [for example] we talked to the [team’s] sport psychologist, [and to] people on our team with Olympic experience…it was all kinds of people giving us advice, but again you can’t really prepare for [this pressure] because there is nothing else like it, so I was really surprised with how we performed.

[Paris and I] used to be a team that I don’t think performed [well] under pressure, [as there were] so many times [when we] couldn’t quite deliver at various large events in the past. Then [at Rio], when all the cameras were on our course, [that’s] when we got three Top Five [finishes] and we had to perform in the final race of the normal series [to qualify for the] medal race and we were able to do that.

I feel like [Paris and I] transformed into a team that could [perform] under pressure that was a really cool lesson for me.

I think the Olympics reinforced for me how much it’s about the journey and how much it’s about the people you meet along the way, because all the medalists in my class-I was just so happy to be able to be part of their story, to be their competitor and even make history was really special. It just wouldn’t [have] been the same if we weren’t friends off the water.

I thought about people that had helped us along the way [before and during the Games] and the journey wouldn’t mean as much if we hadn’t had the fan base because that means that so many people believed in us and supported us along the way. This sounds a little cheesy but it’s true because you spend all of your time doing and dedicating everything to [the Olympics] and so it’s really about the people you can share [your journey] with.

So what are your current sailing and life plans? Are you headed back to Stanford University to complete your Master’s work in Mechanical Engineering? Also, are you and Paris still operating as a sailing team?
Yes, a couple weeks off would have been nice to just having tie up loose ends and hanging out with family and friends that hadn’t had been able to spend much time with and then in late September I go back to Stanford to finish my masters degree in mechanical engineering-

Wait…how many years do you have you left?
I did half of it during [my] undergrad so I only have one year left.

So you did half of your master’s degree at Stanford and while you were also earning your undergraduate degree at Stanford and also getting ready to sail in the Olympics?
Yes, [laughs] I did.

I took a lot of classes before my senior year, so that my senior year was largely dedicated to the master’s classes.

Did you do this so that you could do an Olympic sailing campaign without a break on your resume or you are a massive over achiever?
[Laughs.] I don’t really care about a break on my resume or any time gaps or anything-I just knew that it was going to be mentally easier for me to dedicate myself to sailing knowing that I had something to come back to, and financially it make sense to get all these classes done [while I was earning my undergraduate degree].

Right now [I’m] glad I did it [this way] because it’s going to be really hard to get my head back [into] study mode [and] knowing that [I only have] nine months in class is a lot easier [to swallow] than [if I had] two years [left to go].

Anyway I go back to finish class [in a few weeks and] I will be done by mid-June [2017]. Paris and I haven’t really talked about [the Tokyo 2020 Games as] it wasn’t something that we wanted to think about before the [Rio 2016] Games, and now we are just catching our breaths but I know that we [would] both like to continue [to train for the] 2020 [Games].

Paris has three and a half years of college [to go], so we need to see what will stick because obviously her education is really important, and having done a campaign our eyes are open to how much work it is and how much time we need to dedicate to it. We need to talk about that, but right now we’re just really happy with how we did [at Rio] and we just need to evaluate and maybe start making a plan. [Laughs.]

Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record?
Let’s see, [maybe] just reinforcing how proud [I am] of what Paris and I did on the water, but what we did could not have been accomplished without hundreds of people on our team behind us. Winning that race was [for] everyone who believed in us even when we didn’t have great results…[the] people who saw us improving and having fun and really just giving our all, so I’m so thankful for everyone on our team-it really is what makes the whole experience incredible. It wouldn’t mean as much if we had somehow done this all on our own, which I can’t even fathom! [Laughs.]