Olympic dream for Indian siblings

Katya and Dayne Coelho from India are working hard together to make progress in the tough Olympic windsurfing fleet. Aged 24, two years younger than her brother, Katya has enjoyed the build-up and preparations in Hyères in the South of France before the Last Chance Regatta.

“I’m extremely grateful for being able to be here,” says Katya. “And I’m super happy to be competing with some of the Olympic sailors who are already qualified and just watching how they sail and race. We have learned so much just during the preparations and we will learn a lot more from the racing.”

The siblings are usually very reliant on each other for making progress. “Working with Dayne has always been good for me, because he’s much better than me and training with a partner who’s better than you kind of helps,” says Katya. “We are very few sailors in India, so it’s always nice having him around on the water and training with him. We are always motivating each other and pushing each other to be the best versions of ourselves on the water.”

Dayne agrees that the training sessions with his sister works well for both of them. “We share more or less the same vision of how we both want to get better, so it’s nice to have that personal, kind of motivational factor right beside you every day. And that’s what’s given us the ability to get so far in our career together.”

Both siblings caught the sailing bug from their father. “I used to watch him from the beach when he was sailing,” says Dayne, now 26 years old. “I would keep on at him to let me go out with him, but he thought I was too young. And then when I was seven years old he finally gave in and took me out. It just felt natural to me from that first moment, and I’ve never stopped since.”

It was a similar story for Katya who also didn’t like being left on the beach and eventually started going sailing with her dad from the age of 11. Like her elder brother, she was instantly hooked, and loves being on the water as much as possible.

The support from mum and dad continues to the present day, according to Dayne. “Our parents are fully supportive of what we’re doing and they’re also very invested in it. My mum really helps around with the nutritional part of things when we go to big events like this. And my dad is always with us on the water. So it’s nice to have them around. And obviously you feel a bigger need to go out there and make them proud.”

Both athletes are part of the World Sailing Emerging Nations Program (ENP) and both appreciate the massive improvements they’ve been able to make thanks to the support from ENP coaches like Karolina Kluszczyńska from Poland.

“Karolina has been a massive support to us over the past days,” says Dayne, “and she has been helping us to apply the finishing touches before going into the regatta. We are at the peak of our performance, and we are really ready to give this event everything we have and hopefully try and qualify for the Olympics.”