The 2004 Olympics are in the books, in our collective rear view mirror illuminated now only by tail lights. Here’s one person’s thought on what happened on the waters off Athens’.

As in 2000 Great Britain was once again most successful. They won 5 medals and at least one of each color.

Their success was led by Ben Ainslie in Finn and Shirley Robertson and crew in Ynglings. Both had won Gold in 2000.

Britain’s 470 medallists had been 4th in 2000 while their Bronze medals winners were also 2000 Olympians.

There’s a lot of conjecture about Britain’s winning ways. Is it money, talent, luck etc. From the above I’d say experience is a factor. All 5 of their medals came from previous Olympians.

The US was one of 7 countries with 2 medals. Gold came in men’s 470, while Silver was one in Tornados. Perhaps not coincidentally these teams had Olympic experience going back to 1988!

If the US is to up it’s medal totals a case can be made that sailors from this Olympic cycle need to be retained.

Maybe with another 4 years of training the USA’s 8th in Laser and 5th in women’s 470’s can be turned into medals.

To me, several sailors will signify this Olympiad going forward.

One is Britain’s Ben Ainslie the Gold Medallist in the Finn class. After a 1st day disqualification he came back to win the Finn class placing 1st in 4 of the remaining 9 races. Ainslie is as close to a sailing god as there is these days.

Unless of course you want to call Brazil’s Torben Grael a sailing god. Grael and crew won the Star class gold. This was Grael’s 5th Olympic medal and his 2nd gold.

Grael beat former world champion (1990)Ross Mcdonald of Canada and 2003 World Champion team from France who were the Bronze medallists.

Other world champions Paul Cayard, Iain Percy/Steve Mitcell and Fred Loof were 5th, 6th and 12th respectively.

The 11 races in this class were one by 9 different teams. Only Gold winner Grael and the USA’s Cayard/Trinter won multiple races.

Now with an Olympic experience added to his resume perhaps Cayard should vie for the 2008 berth when Olympic experience might equal a medal.

Gal Fridman of Israel was the Gold medallist in the Mistral windsurfers. This was Israel’s 1st gold medal in any sport. It was good to see athletic triumph come from this not always happy part of the world!

Finally there was US 470 crew Kevin Burnham. The photo of his post gold back flip shows his winning joy. Burnham had sailed 470’s since 1980, culminating in this gold. Once again, experience wins!

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