World Sailing Emerging Nations Program sets sailors on course for Olympics

The World Sailing Emerging Nations Programme (ENP) aims to help athletes from less well-known sailing nations to make steps and leaps up to the highest level, even to the Olympic Games. 

Fiona Kidd, Head of International Development at World Sailing, explains the origins of the ENP: “It started back in the 2000s when we had the Athletes Participation Programme in the Youth Worlds and in 2011 at the World Championships in Perth. The original programme got amplified into the Emerging Nations Programme and since that time it’s gone from success to success over the past 13 years.” 

One of the measures of success is how many ENP athletes qualify to compete at the Olympic Regatta. At the Tokyo 2020 Games there were eight ENP sailors and currently it looks like there will be at least double that number for Paris 2024. 

Kidd adds: “That’s why the Last Chance Regatta is so important for us, because we want to get as many of those emerging nations to the Olympic Games to represent their country.” 

Cat Duncan, Development Manager at World Sailing, has been working with the Emerging Nations Programme since 2018 and builds a close relationship with the sailors who come through the process. 

“We’ve been working closely with the ENP athletes in the lead-up to the Last Chance Regatta in Hyères, trying to support sailors in the final qualification event for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The sailors have had a five-day coaching period with coaches before the regatta and then are being supported during competition with the coaches as well.” 

Duncan has worked with some of the athletes since they were teenagers on the youth programme. “We have had sailors here that were at our youth events in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and now to see them performing at the highest level in senior competition is just amazing. It really shows the impact of the programme in creating lifelong sailors.” 

Helping the sport of sailing to develop in regions where the sport is barely followed or understood, that’s a big part of World Sailing’s drive to see the ENP athletes succeed. Sailing has a lot further to go with becoming established in Africa, but there are signs of the sport gaining traction in Tunisia for example. 

ILCA 7 sailor Hamdi Slimani is looking to follow in the footsteps of fellow Tunisian, Akrout Youssef and qualify for the men’s dinghy. 

“Akrout is my idol,” grins Slimani. “He’s a two-time Olympian and he’s more than 15-time national champion. And he’s a good champion, even in his character. He thinks differently, he has a good mentality. I try my hardest to be like him, and if I can get to the Games it would be a huge honour for me, because all my family and the sailing federation are putting their hopes on me.” 

The ENP has brought structure to his training. Coaches, and former Olympians, Lisa Ross from Canada and Paul McKenzie from Australia have been working closely with the ILCA singlehanded dinghy sailors like the 23-year-old Slimani. “Lisa and Paul help us to identify our mistakes and fix them, which really helps me improve more quickly. And it’s good to meet new people and make new friends too.” 

Ross says the social aspect of the ENP would be easy to overlook but it’s actually one of the most important parts of the programme. 

“The ENP athletes are in an environment where they’re learning from each other. They likely don’t have a lot of teammates at home. So there’s a feeling of belonging and there’s a really good team environment that a lot of these athletes probably don’t experience as much on their own, when they’re trying to be the only one coming from their country or maybe one of just two or three. 

“That’s a huge benefit of the programme. It really allows these athletes to feel like they’re belonging to something when they’re at these big events and they’re not just out there by themselves trying to take on the world.” 

Katya Coelho, an iQFOiL rider from India, has been working hard to get to grips with the technical and physical challenges of foiling windsurfing. She says the ENP has accelerated her learning enormously. 

“It’s not very often you get opportunities like this,” says the 24-year-old. “The programme has helped me so much as a sailor, I feel like my level in just a few days of training has improved so much. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about the importance of the tiny details which can make such a difference.”  

Former Olympic campaigner from Poland, Karolina Kluszczyńska, is the ENP coach for the iQFOiL windsurfer athletes and Coelho says the coach input has been invaluable. “We’ve never had this kind of knowledge about the sport before. Having a coach like Karolina has just been amazing, because she gets us to focus on all the details, and she’s had so much patience with us, explaining every step along the way.” 

Trent Hardwick, an ILCA 7 men’s dinghy sailor from Belize, has lapped up every moment of the programme. 

“Honestly, it has helped so much,” says the 21-year-old. “Having coaching at the event and prior to the event at a camp, especially in new venues like Hyères and The Hague last year, it’s definitely been a good help financially as well with the boat charter and flights and everything like that.” 

Getting to the Games, that’s Hardwick’s dream. “I think that’s everyone’s dream here. I used to watch the Olympics at home with my mum and dad. So being able to represent the country I grew up in and sail for my country – that would be an honour and experience that I would not trade for anything else.”