US Sailing names 2007 Athletes of the Year

by Cynthia Goss on 19 Dec 2007 Andrew Campbell and Anna Tunnicliffe are SportsMan and SportsWoman of the Year
Barkow, Capozzi, Howe Capture Team of the Year
Doerr, Angle, Donohue are Paralympians of the Year

US Sailing, the national governing body for the sport, has selected eight athletes as Sailing's 2007 U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) Athletes of the Year for outstanding performance and achievement. Laser sailor Andrew Campbell (San Diego, Calif.) and Laser Radial sailor Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) are SportsMan and SportsWoman of the Year; Yngling sailors Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wisc.), Debbie Capozzi (Bayport, N.Y.) and Carrie Howe (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) have captured the Team of the Year category; Sonar sailors Rick Doerr (Clifton, N.J.), Tim Angle (Marblehead, Mass.), and Bill Donohue (Brick, N.J.) are the Paralympians of the Year.

These U.S. sailors have proven to be dominant forces in their respective one-design fleets in 2007, in both U.S. and international arenas. US SAILING has nominated these sailors to the USOC for consideration for the overall Athletes of the Year awards; each Olympic sport's national governing body selects their outstanding athletes for consideration for this national distinction. The overall winners of the USOC Athletes of the Year awards will be announced in January 2008.

SportsMan of the Year: Andrew Campbell
Andrew Campbell has been a regular on the leaderboard at Laser class events for several years, and in 2007 he continued to string victories together as he campaigned this singlehanded dinghy at regattas in the United States, Europe, and South America. Gold medal performances included a class win at the XV Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and first place in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Sailing, a tough 16-race, nine-day contest held this fall in Newport (R.I.) among the nation's top Laser sailors, which earned him a berth on the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. Campbell consistently logged top-10 finishes in large international Laser fleets, including a bronze medal in the 114-boat fleet racing the 2007 Canadian Olympic Regatta, Kingston (CORK) and an 8th place in the 149-boat class racing the 2007 Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Since 2001, Campbell has been named to the US Sailing Team—which includes the top-ranked sailors in each Olympic class—six times, and he was selected by US SAILING as the USOC Male Athlete of the Year in 2002 and 2005.

SportsWoman of the Year: Anna Tunnicliffe
Laser Radial sailor Anna Tunnicliffe has had a year of stellar success, which when factored against all other racers competing in this singlehanded dinghy class has made Tunnicliffe the number-one ranked Laser Radial sailor in the world in 2007. A string of gold medal performances characterized her year, beginning in February with a win in the 96-boat fleet racing the Laser Midwinters East Championship and followed in August by a gold medal at the 2007 Good Luck Beijing – Qingdao International Regatta, an official test event for the 2008 Olympic Games; in October she won the 16-race U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Sailing in Newport (R.I.), which earned her a berth on the U.S. Olympic Sailing Team. Competing in large Laser Radial fleets at international events in 2007, she was top American at the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais, Portugal (5th in class; 107 boats), and at the 2007 US SAILING Rolex Miami OCR in Miami, Florida (fourth in class; 67 boats). Tunnicliffe has been a member of the US Sailing Team since 2005.

Team of the Year: Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe
Skipper Sally Barkow and crew Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe are familiar faces in the winner's circle of the USOC Team of the Year award: this team competing in the Yngling won this award in 2005, and their outstanding performance in 2007 earns them the title for the second time. These three women have consistently outperformed their peers at class events in 2007 to prove themselves to be a powerhouse team in this keelboat fleet. Their selection for this award is based on gold and silver medal performances at both national and international events in the Yngling class. Gold medal performances in 2007 included a class win at US SAILING Rolex Miami OCR and the 2007 Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma de Mallorca, Spain; the team brought home silver medals from the 2007 ISAF Sailing World Championships in Cascais (Portugal), the 2007 Semaine Olympique Française in Hyères (France), and the Yngling North American Championship in Miami (Florida). This team has been named to the US Sailing Team every year since 2003.

Paralympians of the Year: Rick Doerr, Tim Angle, Bill Donohue
Sonar racers Rick Doerr, Tim Angle, and Bill Donohue opened the 2007 season with a top performance at the 2007 US SAILING Rolex Miami OCR. In a tough international fleet, they placed second to capture a silver medal: they missed out on first place by a slim one-point margin to set the tone for a year of top performances. By September, they were in Rochester ( N.Y.) to face a Sonar field of 27 teams from 16 different nations at the International Foundation for Disabled Sailing World Championship. At that regatta they peaked to capture the World Championship, which took place on the eve of the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials – Sailing. In October, they won the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials - Sailing in Newport (R.I.), in a hard-fought battle that earns them the right to represent the United States at the 2008 Paralympic Games in China. In 2006, Doerr was named the USOC Paralympic Athlete of the Year for sailing; this year, his teammates join him in this distinction. Doerr has been a member of the US Disabled Sailing Team (USDST), which includes the top-ranked sailors in each of the Paralympic classes, since 2001; in the past seven years, Angle had been named to the team six times. The entire team of Doerr, Angle, and Donohue were on the USDST in 2006 and 2007