Ciao Italia!

The European Championship is concluded, and I am happy to say I placed 47th out of 154 competitors. For my first international IQ Event, this is a good result, but I know that I have a lot more potential in future events.

The regatta consisted of 5 days of sailing, with 20 total races. There was a mix of slalom, and course racing in almost every wind condition imaginable. The first two days went extremely well for me, and after day two I was in contention to be top 20 overall. Unfortunately, a few errors in day 3 and day 4 dropped me significantly in the leaderboards landing me around 45th place.

I am a hyper competitive person, and I really hate losing because of mistakes I made. In sailing, the game is as much mental as it is physical, and after days 3/4 and dropping from 23rd to 43rd, my mental game was degraded. I had lost a protest, disqualifying me from one of the races, and was making foolish mistakes that cost me dozens of positions. I was tired, disappointed, and being much to hard on myself.

I am extremely fortunate that I have people who love and care about me, and those people helped me remember the big picture. I am in Italy, competing with the worlds best, and doing far better than I would’ve expected for my first international event. It reminded me that I have the extraordinary opportunity to do what I love, and that I just need to have fun.

Going into day 5 I was excited, and in a far better mental state than the prior day. I was going to leave it all out there, and that’s exactly what I did. In my final race, I managed a 4th place against the worlds best. I couldn’t picture a better way to end the event. I was having so much more fun, and I believe this is ultimately what led to my stronger results.

Im proud of my finish, but I’m eager to do even better. This event showed me I have the ability to do better with more practice. I know what I need to improve for the coming events, and feel more driven than ever to get to work and make myself the best I can be.

Thank you to everybody who helped get me here. Without everybody's support, none of this would be possible.

Noah Lyons

USA 6