"Don't show me the scoreboard!"

They’re competing in the most important regatta of their lives, so why do sailors not even keep track of their results? When reporters ask sailors if they’re happy with their scores so far, quite often the sailors have no clue of the points or where they’re lying in the competition.

“Don’t talk to me about results,” pleaded 49erFX sailor Jo Aleh today in the media mixed zone as journalists were lining up to talk to the New Zealand skipper. “You can talk to me about races but not the scores.” Along with crew Molly Meech the Kiwis had bounced back from a terrible start to the regatta to score a 3,2,1 from the afternoon, making them the best performing team of the day. With a gold and silver medal to her name from her time in the 470 class, along with Meech’s 49erFX silver from Rio 2016, it’s hard to question the wisdom of their strategy. Just for us mortals, it’s not easy to understand why glancing at the scoreboard is as toxic as plutonium.

Morgan Reeser competed at the Barcelona 1992 Games in the 470 class with fellow American Kevin Burnham. On the final lap of the final race the silver medal could have gone to any of six teams still in the running. Reeser and Burnham had no clue how they were doing on the scoreboard. “We could have finished eighth overall, but we just sailed the best race we could,” said Reeser. “If you don’t look at the points you don’t know who your direct rivals are, but nobody’s going to pass you if you sail the right up the course, so that’s what we focussed on.”

The American ‘nothing to see here’ strategy worked and Reeser and Burnham won the Olympic silver medal. Reeser has since preached the same philosophy to the sailors he has coached at the past six Olympiads. He coached Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa to an Olympic gold on home waters at Athens 2004, and Luke Patience and Stu Bithell to a 470 silver on their home waters at London 2012. 

So why don’t sailors pay attention to the results? “Essentially it doesn’t determine how well you’ve actually performed because you may have gotten a little lucky and you won the race. Or you may have had some bad luck and you actually sailed well but you finished 12th. The results shouldn’t define your day.

“I think it leads to extremes of emotion, high and low, if you’re too focused on the results. It can shrink your awareness of the bigger picture, so I think it’s better to treat every day as a new day.”

written by Andy Rice