Paris 2024 Day 7: Five Things We Learned

Note to self: must read the Sailing Instructions

When the Dutch 49erFX team were leading the Medal Race comfortably, all Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz had to do was sail across the finish line. Except that they sailed in the wrong direction. They had forgotten it was a different course format compared with the racing they’d been doing all week. After they had cross the actual finish line they sailed over to their coach Kai Böcher who hurriedly got the printed sailing instructions out of his dry bag. “There was a lot of confusion for us when we thought we’d come across the finish line,” said Van Aanholt. “But we quite quickly realised something is wrong. We were still unsure if we had sailed the correct course. So that took some time to work out, which was, yeah, I think some of the most horrible minutes of our lives. Which made the relief all the better afterwards.”

Love conquers all

One of the great stories-in-waiting was the high possibility of seeing the Dutch fulfil their status as regatta favourites in the Men’s and Women’s Skiffs. With Bart Lambriex having recently proposed to Odile van Aanholt, a double gold would have made them the ultimate Golden Couple for sports fans in The Netherlands. While the dream has come true for the Golden Girls, sixth place for Lambriex and teammate Floris van de Werken was a bitter pill to swallow. “It’s definitely been heartbreaking not to see them reach their potential this week,” said Van Aanholt. “But we’re still extremely proud of them and they’re very happy for us. It was a lot of emotions in the household this week. But it’s also what makes sports beautiful. We have spent a lot of world championships together, but you definitely feel like the Olympics is different. Every emotion is heightened, whether it’s positive or negative. I don’t think it was the easiest week to have a ‘significant other’ also trying to reach their goals, but I’m very grateful that we got to do it together. And we still have love. Everything is good.”

They only went and got engaged!

As the French Skiff team stepped ashore, Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon had a special moment in store. “At the beginning of the day our boyfriends said they would propose to us if we won gold or silver,” said Steyaert. “So after the Medal Race I said ‘OK, we got bronze, we’re not going to get engaged.” But when we got to the beach our boyfriends were there and they got down on one knee, and we said ‘Yes!’.

Kiwis take a call from Blair

In winning an Olympic silver medal, Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie have continued the strong legacy laid down by Pete Burling and Blair Tuke who won silver, gold and silver at the previous three Games. “We just had a call from Blair to say congratulations which was great,” said  

McKenzie. “Pete and Blair have been really cool role models for us throughout the years. You know, we started training against them and racing against them and it’s great to have those boys right behind us. It’s great to be able to continue their legacy.”

Family matters

Diego Botin and Florian Trittel enjoyed one of the biggest cheers at the Medal Ceremony from a vocal Spanish group in the crowd of fans and spectators. Tonight it’s all about family for Trittel. “We’ve got our families here so the most important thing for us is always to share these moments with them because they are part of this. This is because of them. We’ll share the moment with them and go for a big dinner.”

written by Andy Rice