All about experience: How the Spanish Men's Skiff team used painful lessons to win gold

Experience counts. Which is why Diego Botin’s previous 49er campaigns at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 are a critical part of his success in winning gold this week in Marseille. 

Sailing with former crew Iago Marra, finishing ninth in Rio was below expectations, but missing out on a bronze medal in Tokyo by losing a tiebreak was a very painful lesson indeed.

“We had a very strong relationship with the German team working towards Tokyo,” said Botin. “I think we did a really good job. We prepared together and we felt strong with a lot of options on getting that medal. We ended the fleet racing in second, equal points with the British who ended up winning gold. But we did a very bad medal race and lost out on tiebreak to our German training partners.

“I think we had a done a very strong campaign, and with all that experience in the past, all those losses good moments also, we use them as experience and learnings and it think it all really paid off for us this week.”

After competing at Tokyo 2020 in the Nacra 17 foiling catamaran event, Florian Trittel accepted the invite to join Botin in the 49er after Marra decided to retire from Olympic competition. But for all their own experience of campaigning, they wanted to bring more into the next push for Paris. “We got some very good advice a from a very experienced person that it would be really good to get some more experience in our team. That was probably one of the missing pieces in the puzzle that we received back then three years ago. So we took that advice quite seriously, we brainstormed about who we could find to help us and we went for the best we could get.

“So we brought in Hamish Willcox to this campaign and our coach Diego Alvaro,” said Trittel. Willcox, a three-time 470 World Champion from New Zealand and great sailor in his own right, had coached Peter Burling and Blair Tuke to Rio 2016 gold and Tokyo 2020 silver, as well as worked with them in Emirates Team New Zealand’s winning America’s Cup campaign of 2021. “For us, having Hamish has been game changer. We are still very young guys, going after a dream, so having that kind of experience was very important.”

Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie used to work with Burling and Tuke in training back in New Zealand, especially during the COVID lockdown period in the lead-up to the Tokyo Games, which ended up happening a year late in August 2021. “It’s great to continue the legacy of what Pete and Blair achieved,” said McHardie. “A lot of effort has gone into the 49er squad in the New Zealand team, so we want to push hard, keep going on and we’ve got a younger generation still building up through the squad.”

Experienced coaches have also played their part in the bronze won by Ian Barrows and Hans Henken of the USA. Charlie McKee was on the coaching team, and along with his brother Jonathan, the siblings took the 49er bronze medal on Sydney Harbour when the skiff made its Olympic debut in 2000. So the next skiff medal for the USA has been 24 years in the making, and it’s a crucial stepping stone as the Americans build towards a home Games at Los Angeles 2028.

written by Andy Rice