Sally Barkow joins US Sailing Olympic Program

Sally Barkow © Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race

US Sailing has hired Sally Barkow (Park City, Utah) as Olympic Team Coach and Performance Manager. Barkow brings a strong background as an athlete to this position.

She is a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year (2005, 2007), an Olympian (2008) and a two-time Volvo Ocean Race competitor (2014-2015 and 2017-2018). She will be joining the US Sailing staff to coach U.S. Nacra 17 athletes and assist US Sailing Team coaches in managing the athlete training programs.

Barkow will be collaborating with US Sailing's Olympic Head Coach, Luther Carpenter (Cypress, Texas), to support the Team coaches in executing the athletes' training plans and tracking their progress against key performance indicators and targeted goals. Barkow will also serve as the interface between the US Sailing Team's Innovation, Research and Development efforts and the coaches and athletes.

Jack Gierhart (Marion, Mass.), Chief Executive Officer of US Sailing, is confident that Barkow will make a positive impact on the US Sailing Team, "Bringing Sally on board will provide the athletes with more support and drive synergy with each individual's training efforts and the overall Olympic sailing program."

"As an accomplished competitor and leader, Sally has demonstrated an impressive track record on and off the water," Gierhart added. "We're confident that her breadth of sailing experiences and discipline will complement the U.S. Olympic sailing program well."

Gierhart's confidence comes from the expertise Barkow has demonstrated in her involvement with the US Sailing Team, over the past decade. As an athlete, she represented Team USA in the woman's keelboat event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Upon starting her full-time role at US Sailing, she will wrap up a two-year tenure as the sailing representative of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Athlete Advisory Council. Barkow has also been an active member of US Sailing's Board of Directors since the fall of 2015.

Barkow is anticipating the opportunity to use those experiences in her new role, "I'm really happy to be joining this group full time. I had a lot of joy, challenges, successes and failures in my own Olympic career and I'm really delighted to use that to help this team."

Barkow has already begun working closely with several of the US Sailing Team athletes. At the 2019 Ready Steady Tokyo - Sailing Olympic Test Event and 2019 Hempel World Cup Enoshima, she coached the U.S. Nacra 17 teams and is currently training with them in Auckland, New Zealand.

"I'm really looking forward to the next two months here in Auckland," said Barkow. "Leading this Nacra squad, learning our deficits compared to the rest of the world's performance, and seeing how we match up after our past few months of training will be exciting."

During her time in New Zealand, Barkow will be supporting US Sailing Team athletes and coaches that are preparing for the 2019 49er, 49erFX, and Nacra 17 World Championships that will take place December 3-8 at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club.