Its Been a While…
The past 5 months have been some of the busiest, most challenging, most stressful, and most fun 5 months of my life. I will try and give a quick synopsis and get anybody reading up to date.
Olympic Test Event:
This was my first chance at qualifying myself for the Olympic Games. The regatta was structured just like the real Olympics in that there were 24 competitors, one from each country in my class. In order to qualify myself, I had to place in the top 3. After the first two days, I was sitting solidly in 3rd, but made a string of mistakes which eventually took me out of the top 10. It was an amazing learning experience and taught me a lot about risk management and how to set up my equipment for different breeze in a small fleet.
2024 World Championship:
Overall a brutal regatta mentally. I was fresh off the Test Event, still recovering mentally, and was thrown into this event. I tried to make the best, but sailed an incredibly poor regatta. This regatta out of any other taught me the most. The ability to bounce back mentally after a bad race or day is a crucial skill to have as a sailor. Due to my mistakes this event, I practiced that a lot. You always learn more from the hard events than from the easy ones.
Pan-American Games:
This was one of the coolest and most fun regattas I have ever done. Getting the opportunity to bond with the U.S Sailing Team and staff was truly amazing, and I had such a memorable experience sailing in Chile and having such a bonding experience with some truly fantastic people. I was holding second the whole event but unfortunately the medal race did not go my way and I ended up 3rd. Disappointing result but hard to be upset walking away with a medal and the unforgettable experience.
What is next?
I am currently heading to Lanzarote, Spain to do some training and a regatta. We wanted to get some time in Lanzarote because it is where our 2024 World Championships will be following our domestic Olympic Trials in Miami in January. I am super excited to sail in this new place, and get some time on the same waters as the Worlds in a few months.
Thank you everybody for the continued support, especially to my primary sponsor Shipglide. Nothing is possible without the support everybody has given me.
Best
Noah
USA 6
